The Sinister Schism
by Gamemaker97
Summary: Mr Poe never told the Baudelaire children of the terrible fire on the beach. Mrs Beatrice Baudelaire did. AU.
1. Chapter One

**(Serious) Author's Note: Before the story begins, I have a couple of things to mention.**

**Firstly, as you may have already established from the story's description, this story takes place in an alternate universe, with everything leading up to this chapter having been the same as everything leading up to 'The Bad Beginning'. In other words, all the characters have canonical backgrounds.**

**The second thing I'd like to mention is that this story will use a Snicket-esque narrator, although it isn't actually Lemony Snicket, but another narrator created myself. I would've gone for Snicket, but the Lemony Snicket character is likely to feature in either this story or its eventual sequels at some point.**

**I hope that you all enjoy my first attempt at A Series of Unfortunate Events fanfiction :)**

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_(Fictional) Author's Note: Dear reader,_

_I am writing to notify you that this is my first endeavour into the Series of Unfortunate Events fandom, a phrase which here means "this is my first attempt at ASoUE fanfiction, and will probably end up discarded on a heap of papers in the corner of my bedroom along with countless Harry Potter fanfics."_

_I also feel inclined to mention to you that during the course of this novel, the Baudelaire orphans (or not orphans, as the case may be) will encounter many unpleasantries, including, among others, a terrible fire, a despicable villain, a secret society in turmoil and cold soup for breakfast._

_I'm sure that many of you would wish to read on further, but I implore you to stop and once and leave this story for your least favourite family member, perhaps your little sister or that stuck-up auntie, or possibly even your neighbour's cat, so that their life can be filled with misery, and not yours._

_With all due respect,_

_A.T._

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**Chapter One**

At various points in your life, you might find yourself hearing the phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire." Of course, very rarely is this phrase used literally, as very few people find themselves in the position where they are likely to become part of a fried breakfast, but this phrase could be applied figuratively towards the Baudelaire family throughout the course of this sorrowful story.

You see, much like the egg (or sausage, if you prefer) being fried to a crisp in the aforementioned expression, the Baudelaire family find themselves within the grasp of misfortune time and time again, and yet despite their many attempts to leave their bad luck behind them, they always end up finding their way into a situation somewhat more serious than the one that they have just left. Maybe some of you out there are yet to experience such tragedy in your lives, and those lucky few who happen to be reading this should give up this venture immediately and take up a far more joyful pastime, such as lacrosse or fishing.

I'm sorry to have to document the tale of the Baudelaires in such explicit detail, but that's just how the story goes.

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Klaus was bored.

It was a cold, foggy day in the city, and the three Baudelaire children were at Briny Beach. Being the bright, well-read boy of twelve that he was, it was unusual for Klaus to be bored during a day trip to the beach. But this morning his parents had woken him and his two sisters, Violet and Sunny, early in the morning, insisting that they venture to the beach - a phrase which here means "forced them out of the house to 'make the most of the weather' at a cold, sunless beach."

Klaus, being the avid reader that he was, spent most of his time in the extensive library that his parents owned in the Baudelaire mansion, and had managed to read a great many books. Of course, being only twelve, he hadn't managed to read all of the books in their library, although he hoped that one day he would, but his intelligent mind already held more information than those of most adults.

He had been in the middle of reading a book about small molluscs before retiring to bed the previous evening, and had been eager to continue reading on this particular grey day. Now, having explored the tide-pools at Briny Beach as he loved doing on every trip, he had become frustrated to find that he knew everything about all the little creatures lurking in the murky waters of the tide-pools aside from a few small orange-brown molluscs, which he had been hoping to read up on that very same morning.

With nothing better to do, he averted his attention away from the tide-pools to look out along the foggy beach. It was almost deserted; it was a weekday, and it wasn't quite lunchtime, so the beach was yet to be inundated with stressed, important-looking businessmen and workers, who often took to the calming beach during their lunch-break, and due to this, the beach was very quiet.

_It may be quiet, but it really isn't tranquil,_ thought Violet Baudelaire, the eldest of the three siblings. She had come prepared for the day's grim weather, being wrapped up within a fabric coat, her collar turned up to protect her face from the biting wind.

Whenever Violet came down to Briny Beach, she often found that she enjoyed walking along the pebbly shore and skipping stones into the water. She had always thought that she was quite good at stone skipping, as on a good day with a nice, flat pebble, she could manage to get the small rock to jump across the surface of the sea at least fifteen or twenty times before it finally succumbed to the siren song of gravity and was pulled under the waves.

But today was not a good day. The sea was grey and choppy, and there were remarkably few good stones to be found for skipping. It was a rarity that the beach would be so quiet, and Violet felt disappointed that she was unable to enjoy the full potential of the moment, as the lack of people made the beach seem desolate, and a sense of foreboding hung heavy in the air, a phrase which here means "Violet felt as though something awful was just around the corner, waiting to happen."

Still, she tried to make the most of a bad lot, and was attempting to engage her quick, inventing mind in trying to create a device that would be able to help her retrieve favourable stones from the sea after she had skipped them across the waves.

Frustrated by the wind, she reached into her coat pocket for a thin strip of blue ribbon, which she used to tie up her long hair, stopping the wind from blowing it in front of her eyes. She often found herself doing this, as her fourteen-year-old mind never wanted to be distracted by anything as trivial as her hair.

Despite not being distracted by her hair, her dismal performance at stone skipping that morning was enough to irritate her keen inventing mind, and Violet gave up, sitting down on the beach next to her baby sister, staring out into the sombre sea.

Sunny Baudelaire was by far the youngest sibling, and often felt that she had already passed out of babyhood, having already reached her second birthday. However, her brother and sister refused to share this opinion, partly due to the fact that Sunny was very small for her age, and had not yet managed to learn to walk. She was, however, quick-minded, and already her speech was beginning to show through, with odd words being comprehendible to the adult world. Her brother and sister were the only two people she knew capable of understanding her unintelligible murmurs, moans and shrieks that one would expect from two-year-old infants.

As Violet sat down next to her, Sunny reached out to grab her sister's arm, comforting her. She rested her little head against Violet's shoulder as her elder sister sighed in frustration, staring out to sea. Turning to look along the beach towards her brother Klaus, Sunny noticed a dark shape approaching them from the fog from behind her brother.

"Togi!" Sunny shouted, which meant something along the lines of "there's an ominous figure in the mist behind you!", pointing over Klaus' shoulder.

Violet, who was still looking out into the unruly sea, misunderstood Sunny, and believed that her sister was trying to console her.

"It doesn't matter, Sunny," she said, still staring out to sea. "I can always try again another day."

Only with repeated cries of "Togi!" and Sunny nudging her shoulder repetitively did Violet understand what her sister meant.

Klaus, however, had understood his baby (not not-quite-baby) sister immediately, and had been edging backwards away from the shifty figure until he reached Violet, who had stood up and held Sunny in her arms.

But the figure did not stop advancing, and as the Baudelaires stood perfectly still on the beach on that fateful day, they became aware of the noise that the figure was making as it appeared to stumble towards them; coughing, spluttering and possibly even crying.

"Violet!" the figure called out in a harsh, ragged voice that sounded familiar to the eldest Baudelaire. She knew in an instant who the voice belonged to, but part of her hoped that she was wrong.

"Klaus!" the voice called between sobs, and the middle Baudelaire also knew who the voice belonged to, although he also hoped that the figure would be an entirely different person.

"Sunny!" the figure wailed, and even though Sunny had kittle over two years of experience in the world, she had lived enough to recognise the voice of the figure, who at that moment burst out of the darkness of the fog and dropped to their knees in front of the Baudelaire children.

At this point, dear reader, I am sorry to say that the Baudelaire children have reached the first unfortunate event in what will eventually become the miserable tale of their lives. Of course, the Baudelaire children did not know this at the time, much as I did not know that when I first arrived on Briny Beach many summers ago, there would be a man telling me to attend a garden party the following weekend in a city I barely knew whilst wearing my second-best tie-dye t-shirt, and that there would be a copy of my favourite novel at the party, within which there would be a note consisting of three letters waiting for me from 'a man that I once knew.'

The person in front of them was a woman, who if the Baudelaires hadn't known better, could have been aged twenty-five or fifty. She was of average height and quite slim, but the clothes that she wore were blackened and charred, and soot covered her skin, with only her bright eyes and white teeth sticking out from the blackness as she hung her head sadly, as though in defeat. Tears were flowing steadily from the woman's eyes, forming tracks down her sooty cheeks.

Her hair may have been scorched and thinned in places, and she may have been bent double trying to cough up the horrid chemicals that were embedded within her lungs, but the Baudelaire children were still able to recognise their mother within the broken person who knelt before them.

"Mother!" cried Violet, dropping to her knees in front of her parent. "What happened?" she asked desperately.

The Baudelaire parent took time to compose herself before answering.

"There was a fire," she croaked, struggling for breath between new waves of sobs. "The Baudelaire Mansion... Our home... It's gone!"

"Gone?" said Violet and Klaus incredulously, and at the same time.

"Poof?" said Sunny, not quite understanding.

"Yes," the Baudelaires' mother said, "the whole house was razed to the ground. Bertrand and I..."

"Where is father?" asked Klaus, concerned. Just like his sisters, it had taken him a minute for him to truly understand what his mother was saying. Now that the news had sunk in - a phrase which here means "Klaus had realised thar his home was gone, and that he could never go back" - he had taken off his glasses and was rubbing them against his shirt as the first tears ran down his face.

"I don't know," said his mother, who was slowly starting to regain her composure after the traumas of the morning. "He managed to escape it, though. But only just, like me."

"Mama!" Sunny said, crawling up to her mother and sister on the beach, embracing both of them.

And there, for a few moments, the Baudelaires cried, shocked by the unfortunate event that had befallen them.

"Mother," Violet asked through her tears. "Who did this? Surely this wasn't an accident?"

"I don't know," Mrs Baudelaire cried. "All I do know is that the city isn't safe before," she said, with a determination that the Baudelaire children hadn't seen all morning.

"What does that mean?" asked Klaus, who was distraught.

His mother never answered him. Instead, she uneasily got to her feet, wiped the soot and tears from her eyes, and said, "I must find Bertrand."

And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away from the children into the mist as the first unfortunate chapter of their lives unfolded.

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**(Serious) Author's Note: If you liked the first chapter, please review! Any constructive criticism is welcomed, as I'm really not sure what to do about the writing style. I have just one question: should I carry on with this Snicket-styled narrative? It'd be simple enough to convert the story to use 'normal' narrative techniques if the current narrative is at all tiresome.**

**Again, I hope that you enjoyed the first chapter of what may well be a very long story.**

**With thanks,**

**GM97 :)**


	2. Chapter Two

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo for reviewing!**

**I've decided to carry on with the Lemony Snicket writing style, by the way :)**

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**Chapter Two**

Violet was shocked.

Twenty minutes after her mother had arrived at Briny Beach with such grim news, she was staring into the charred ruins of her home.

Considering that over fourteen years of happy memories had taken place in the ruined lot that stood before the three children, there was barely anything to show for it at all.

Two firemen dressed in full uniforms came out of the wreckage, declaring the property (or, more accurately, what remained of it) to be safe, before walking over to stand with Mr Baudelaire (who looked exhausted but had fared better than his wife) by their shining red fire engine.

Slowly, the Baudelaire children walked into the tragic remains of their home. Amongst the charred mass, barely anything had survived, and Violet was able to find what was left of her workbench, where she had regularly spent afternoons trying to devise new inventions.

Klaus found the charcoal remains of the bookshelves of the Baudelaire library. Like many other people, he believed that there is no sight worse than a ruined book, and it saddened him to see the remains of the leather bindings of one of his favourite encyclopaedias on the sooty floor at his feet. He looked around what was once the library, remembering all the shelves of books that he had hoped to read. Now he would never read them all.

Sunny, who was safe in the arms of her mother, walked with Mrs Baudelaire to the charred kitchen tiles at the back of the building, where nothing remained of the kitchen but a melted lump of metal that was once the stove. Together, mother and daughter stood crying silently in the ruins of their home, remembering the happy times they had once had. Sunny had spent many afternoons with her mother in the kitchen, sitting on the floor tiles whilst her mother cooked up an inventive dish for the family, and was usually given something interesting to bite, as Sunny had only just had her four front teeth grow through, and she loved to bite anything and everything that she could get her hands on.

But those times could happen no more.

With little more purpose to stay at the desolate scene, the Baudelaires took one final look at the destruction before heading out of the property for a final time.

Mrs Baudelaire, who was again emotional as she left the property, ran straight into her husband's arms, who attempted to console her.

"Oh, Bertrand..." she cried. "What are we supposed to do?"

The three Baudelaire children weren't used to seeing their father upset, as he rarely showed his emotions, but even though he wasn't crying the children could tell that he was upset as his voice wavered considerably when he spoke.

"I guess there's only one thing we can do," he said glumly. "We need to get away from here. The city is no longer safe."

_The city is no longer safe,_ thought Violet. _Those are the exact same words that mother used. Something is going on here, and I don't like the look of it._

Mrs Baudelaire had wandered away from her husband to look back at her destroyed home.

"Where can we go to?" she asked quietly.

"Into the mountains," her husband said firmly, trying again to console her. "Back in the old days, the Mortmains were always the safest place."

"Back in the old days?" said Klaus frustratedly, having not yet managed to conquer his tears. "You make it sound like you expected this to happen!"

Klaus would have said more, but his father gave him a deadly look - a phrase which here means "he glared at his son threateningly" - so Klaus stayed silent.

"How are we going to get there?" asked Mrs Baudelaire desperately. "We have nothing. We can't even get money from the bank; all our account information went up in smoke. It's almost hopeless to try and reach the Mortmain Mountains."

"Why do we have to go to the Mortmains?" Violet asked, feeling frightened, but neither parent answered her. Instead, she walked over to Klaus, who was holding Sunny, and observed her parents' discussion.

"That's not exactly true, Beatrice," said Mr Baudelaire, who was attempting to appear cheerful but was failing miserably. "I might not have had much time, but I did manage to grab a couple of belongings in the panic."

Mrs Baudelaire turned back to face her husband, a small glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"What did you save?" she asked desperately.

"Oh, it really isn't much," Mr Baudelaire said as he pulled a small object out of his pocket that the three Baudelaire children recognised as their car keys.

You see, although the large family car that the Baudelaires owned had been destroyed in the fire, as the built-in garage had also been consumed by the inferno, but the Baudelaires were one of the very few lucky families to own two cars, and their second car, a smaller vehicle that might just be able to transport all five Baudelaires, sat untouched across the street from the ruinous mansion.

"This is how we're getting to the mountains," Mr Baudelaire said confidently, smiling for the first time since the fire.

"Did you get anything else, father?" said Klaus, suddenly filled with hope that maybe one of his prized possessions, such as an expensive fountain pen that his mother had bought him for his eleventh birthday, had somehow survived the blaze.

"There's only one more thing..."

Mr Baudelaire slowly reached into his pockets to pull out two small notebooks with solid dark blue covers.

For a moment, Klaus was disappointed; his parents had saved some books from the fire, but these were books that he had never seen before; they certainly weren't kept in the Baudelaire library. However, they clearly meant something to his mother, who ran over to her husband, put her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Thank-you!" she said excitedly, and the children could see that she was happy - or, at least, relieved - for the first time that morning.

"What were those books?" Violet asked Klaus quietly as her parents embraced.

"I don't know," Klaus replied, equally as quietly. "They weren't in our library. I've never seen them before."

"Do you think they have something to do with the reason why we're having to go to the mountains?" Violet asked, worried.

Klaus shrugged.

"I have no idea." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I get the feeling that our parents have been hiding something from us."

Violet nodded in agreement. She also felt unnerved by the whole situation.

"I'm frightened."

"Me too."

The two elder siblings looked at each other for a moment before looking at their parents, who were desperately trying to search their small car for anything useful, and then looking back at each other, smiling sadly.

In the twelve years that Violet and Klaus had lived together, they'd had a neutral relationship with each other, a phrase which here means "they had got on reasonably well with each other, and they rarely argued." The Baudelaire siblings had never been particularly close to each other, but as they stood together by the ruins of their old home, both Violet and Klaus realised just how desperate their situation was, and just how much they needed to depend on each other to get themselves through even the most unfortunate of events.

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**(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed the chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	3. Chapter Three

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing!**

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**Chapter Three**

Sunny was frightened.

Sitting on Violet's lap in the back of a small, stuffy car, she desperately tried to overhear the agitated talk of her parents.

Violet and Klaus had already understood that their parents didn't wish for them to be listening to their conversation, as they had turned up the volume of the radio and leaned in towards each other when they spoke, coming out as murmurs to the three Baudelaire children in the back. After the harrowing experience of the morning - a phrase which here means "the traumas involved with realising that your house has burned down" - Violet and Klaus were both annoyed with their parents for keeping things from them, and were sitting quietly in the back of the car, attempting to listen in on their parents' conversation.

Despite their best efforts, the elder Baudelaire siblings only managed to hear odd words and phrases from the conversation, so to Violet Baudelaire, the conversation sounded like this:

_"This is a desperate situation... Tomorrow night... Olaf will... But then... V.F.D... Maybe, but the... Mountains are... Safe place... Lemony will know."_

"Who is Lemony?" Klaus asked Violet quietly as their parents continued their conversation.

"I've never heard of them," said Violet, shrugging. "And what's a V.F.D.?"

"Ojay!" exclaimed Sunny, who had also been trying to listen, which meant something along the lines of "I don't know what a V.F.D. does, but I want to know who Olaf is."

Violet clung on tightly to Sunny, feeling more and more worried as her parents continued to talk about people and places that none of the Baudelaire children had ever heard of.

"I don't know, Sunny," Violet said dolefully, a word which here means "in a depressed tone".

"I feel like we should find out what's going on," Klaus said seriously. He was worried not only for himself but for his whole family, as undoubtedly whatever his parents were keeping from him would have implications for him. After all, his parents weren't the only ones to be affected by the fire, were they?

As the day wore on, the Baudelaires grew more and more frustrated. Mr Baudelaire had found a lighter and forty dollars in the glovebox of his car, which meant that they would easily have enough fuel to transport the Baudelaires to the Mortmain Mountains. They had already had to stop once; Mrs Baudelaire's charred dress was literally disintegrating, and the family had to stop while Mr Baudelaire hurried to find her some new, more reliable clothing.

By mid-afternoon, the five Baudelaires had left the city behind and moved north into the Hinterlands, a barren flatland that separated the frozen north and the temperate south. In the hot, dusty deserts of the Hinterlands, there was barely anything but a few roads for miles and miles, until the Baudelaires ran across a small petrol station in the middle of the desert. Realising that it might be the last chance to stock up on fuel for a long time, Mr Baudelaire pulled up at the petrol station in the afternoon heat.

The long journey and the searing sun had made Violet and Klaus tetchy, and more impatient they became for answers. When their parents got out of the car and continued murmuring to each other, Klaus decided that it was time to speak up about his concerns.

"Mother, what are you talking about?" he asked, trying not to appear angry, even though he wanted to.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said dismissively.

Violet, however, seemed even more frustrated by this blatant lie, and was desperate to pursue matters further.

"Mother," she said, trying to come across as innocent. "What's a V.F.D.?"

Now, this question certainly brought a genuine reaction, as both Baudelaire parents spun round to face their daughter, visibly angry.

"Where did you hear of that?" Mr Baudelaire asked demandingly.

"We overheard you talking in the car," Klaus said quickly, feeling intimidated.

"What else did you hear?"

"Quite a lot, but none of it made any sense to us," said Violet meekly, trying to avoid her father's angry glare.

Mr Baudelaire looked as though he was about to start a long, reprimanding lecture, but his wife, who never stayed angry at the children for long, guided him away for a moment to calm him down before turning back to her children.

"I'm sorry," said Mrs Baudelaire. "That we haven't explained things to you earlier. But you must understand that our situation is quite desperate, and that we had more pressing issues this morning than telling you three exactly what is going on."

"Ok, we understand," said Klaus. "But can you help us to know what is going on?"

Mrs Baudelaire nodded. "Well, what do you need to know?"

"I've got quite a few things that I'd like to know," said Violet, who was impatient to learn more. "What is a V.F.D.? Who is Lemony? Why isn't the city safe anymore? Why does it feel like we're running for our lives? Why have you been keeping secrets from us?"

Mrs Baudelaire, who was slightly overwhelmed from her daughter's outburst, took her time before answering.

"To answer all of those questions, we would need a very long conversation," she said. "Perhaps we should get in the car, and continue the conversation there. Your father will want to continue the journey soon."

Reluctantly, the three Baudelaire children squeezed into the back seats of the hot, stuffy car again to listen to her mother talk. Once inside the car, they waited patiently for their mother to begin her story.

"A long time ago," Mrs Baudelaire began. "Your father and I were part of an organisation known as V.F.D for many years. It was a noble organisation, filled with many righteous and honourable people, many of whom we were close friends with."

Mrs Baudelaire paused again, trying to collect her thoughts. Violet and Klaus leaned forward in their seats, eager to catch their mother's every word, a phrase which here means "listen intently as Mrs Baudelaire explains the story of her secret past." Even Sunny made an attempt to listen carefully.

"Then came the schism," she said quietly.

"The schism?" asked Violet.

She didn't understand what her mother meant.

"A schism," explained Klaus, who had read a much larger amount of books than her sister. "Is when a group of previously like-minded people turn against each other, forming two opposing factions."

Mrs Baudelaire nodded and smiled sadly at Klaus before continuing her story.

"I was still a young member when the violence began. All our efforts were sabotaged by the troublemakers. Along with many other volunteers, we fought in vain to eradicate the evil from our world. But it was no use.

"In the end, there was nothing else to do but escape it all, and I eventually settled down in the city with your father. But we knew that we were on borrowed time. We knew that one day some of the many enemies that our plight has earned us would hunt us down. It just so happens that today is that day."

"Why did you never think to tell us?" asked Klaus, who felt emotional, although he didn't know whether that was a good thing or not. On one hand, he was relieved that his questions were being answered. On the other hand, he felt scared.

"Your father and I just wanted you three to grow up safe and happy, away from the traumas of the adult world," his mother said sadly. "It's a pity it had to be this way."

"So who is actually after us?" asked Violet, who felt similar to Klaus.

Her mother took a while to answer, and it took Klaus a moment to realise that his mother was staring out of the back window of the car at a long black automobile that was pulling into the petrol station.

"Them," her mother said, pointing at the car, which had stopped twenty yards from them. Then suddenly her persona changed in an instant as she spoke to the three children with authority and determination.

"You three will stay here," she said firmly. "Keep your heads down, and don't attract attention to yourselves. I'll be back shortly. Just be ready to leave."

Violet watched as her mother left the car to stand with her husband, who was waiting patiently for a figure to emerge from the black automobile.

In the end, there wasn't one figure but three, and Klaus quickly worked out who was the leader of the group.

It was a man aged in his late forties, possibly a handful of years older than his parents. He was tall, thin and had receding white and a goatee beard. His long face and prominent hooked nose made him look shady and sinister to the children, and his dangerous appearance wasn't helped by the ragged shirt and trousers that he wore, despite the heat in the Hinterlands sun.

The only other distinguishing features that the man had was the one long eyebrow across his forehead, and a tattoo of an eye on his ankle, which Klaus faintly recognised the shape of, but couldn't work out where from.

The man was smiling, as he was happy to see the Baudelaires, but not in a good way.

"Baudelaires!" the man laughed, as Violet, Klaus and Sunny peeked out of the car windows to watch their parents. "We meet again!"

"What do you want, Olaf?" barked Mrs Baudelaire, who had suddenly become an extroverted, determined woman that the three children had never seen before. Around their home, the Baudelaire parents had always been calm, jovial people, and nothing like the two adults at the petrol station on that summer afternoon.

"You know what I want," said the man know as Olaf, in a very dangerous tone of voice. "And I'm not leaving until I get it."

"I have no idea what you're on about," said Mr Baudelaire.

"Lies!" Olaf snapped. "You'd better start explaining yourself, or someone's going to get hurt!"

The children gasped in horror as one of Olaf's accomplices, a tall, bald man with a long nose, opened his large bag to reveal a loaded harpoon gun, which he aimed at their parents. The deadly tip of harpoon glistened in the sun as the Baudelaires edged away towards their car.

"We don't know what you're on about!" said Mrs Baudelaire desperately, trying to remain calm. Her children, however, had already failed this, and Sunny was already crying on Violet's lap in the back of the car.

"How long are you going to keep going with this charade?" Olaf shouted, outraged. "I've waited fifteen years for this, and you pretend you don't understand me! The cheek of it! I know that you've been in contact with the Snickets all this time! You know exactly what they're hiding from me and you won't do a damned thing about it!"

"So that's all we are, is it?" retorted Mrs Baudelaire. "A way of you getting back at the Snickets for what they once did to you? Does that somehow justify burning down our house?"

The three Baudelaire children in the back of the car suddenly looked at each other, shocked. Sunny squealed, and Violet desperately tried to calm her to avoid them being noticed. But the argument outside already had the attention of all the adults.

"Now that," said Olaf, somehow even darker and more serious than before. "Was not my fault. The fire was a tragic circumstance that I played no part in. I am merely an opportunist, preying on your misfortune to exact my revenge."

Mrs Baudelaire spat on the floor at Olaf's feet, outraged. Her husband had to hold her back to prevent her from launching herself at the vile man standing opposite her. Through a stream of curses, Mrs Baudelaire touched a nerve.

"Really, Olaf?" she scoffed. "I had expected no better. I see that nothing's changed in all these years. Once a coward, always a coward!"

"Now you've crossed the line, Beatrice!" Olaf snarled, infuriated. He turned to his associate, who was holding the harpoon gun.

"Fire away."

Now, at this point, dear reader, I should mention that it is never, ever, ever, ever, _ever_ a wise idea to use fire whilst in a petrol station. _Ever_. But while it may not have been a wise decision, it was indeed a necessary one, as Mr Baudelaire grabbed a nearby pump hose and sprayed the forecourt with highly flammable petrol, grabbed his lighter from his pocket and threw it hard against the concrete floor.

The spark created as the lighter clattered against the floor caused the petrol to combust, spreading panic throughout the petrol station. Olaf's accomplice fired his harpoon gun frantically, but the harpoon flew wildly wide of its target and off into the wilderness of the Hinterlands.

The Baudelaire parents had scrambled hurriedly to their car, and Violet was surprised to find her mother jump into the driver's seat. She was laughing as she hurriedly started up the engines, shocking the Baudelaire children who frantically reached for their seat-belts.

"Just like old times, eh?" she laughed as the small car accelerated violently, leaving the chaotic petrol station behind them.

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**(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed the chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	4. Chapter Four

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo for reviewing the last chapter!**

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**Chapter Four**

Klaus was scared.

The Baudelaires' small car bounced and rattled as it flew over the dusty tarmac of the Hinterlands' roads.

Violet and Klaus, who were completely terrified, watched helplessly out of the back window at the black car that held their pursuers.

"What the hell was the old fool talking about?" shouted their mother angrily as her eyes darted around, looking for an escape route. The adrenaline of the chase had made her look twenty years younger, and her eyes were full of energy.

_It almost looks as though she's enjoying herself,_ thought Violet, watching her mother drive dangerously through the desert. _I hope she knows what she's doing._ She exchanged an anxious glance with her brother, which told her only one thing; none of the Baudelaire children felt at all safe in the back of that car.

"He said that we'd been in contact with the Snickets!" Mr Baudelaire said over the roar of the engines and the rumble of the road beneath them.

"Oh, _I wish!"_ replied his wife. "I've not spoken to them for years!"

"What if we can't find them in the mountains?"

"There will be others. The Mortmain HQ is our largest safe place. Someone there will understand our problems," replied Mrs Baudelaire.

"Do you think we'll be recognised?" her husband asked, to which she shrugged.

"No idea. I hope there's enough of us left from the old days for - watch out, they're getting closer!"

Sure enough, when Klaus turned again to look out of the back window of the car, their pursuers were so close that he could see the glint in Olaf's eyes behind the steering wheel.

As the frantic chase wore on, the road that the Baudelaires were travelling along drew nearer and nearer to the major waterway through the Hinterlands, the Stricken Stream, until the road ran along the banks of the river.

"Why are they still following us?" asked Violet, who was still slightly confused about what had been said back at the petrol station.

"I'm not entirely sure..." her father replied.

"They think that we own something of importance to them," said Mrs Baudelaire, being far more honest than her husband. Mr Baudelaire, however, seemed confused by his wife's words.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Some sort of secret?"

"No," said his wife bluntly. "The sugar bowl."

"Ah," said Mr Baudelaire, for suddenly he felt as though the journey of his life had just taken a turn for the worse, a phrase which here means "his pursuers would never stop until they had found the sugar bowl, which he did not possess."

"esotlam?" asked Sunny, which meant something along the lines of "why would this Olaf person want a sugar bowl?"

"What's so important about a sugar bowl?" asked Klaus, but neither sibling received the answer from their parents.

"There's no time to explain," said their mother, who remained silent after that as she concentrated on navigating the small car (which felt unresponsive and sluggish due to the weight of the five Baudelaires) through a sequence of tight corners as the road followed the route of the Stricken Stream.

With the bends behind them and Olaf still closing in, Mrs Baudelaire spotted a bridge over the river, which gave her an idea.

_"Watch this!"_ she said with an arrogant smile, and turned the steering wheel violently to the right.

Now, dear reader, I'm sure that you know as well as I do that the expression _"watch this!"_ is often used by cocky or arrogant people shortly before attempting something with great levels of bravado. I'm sure that you also know that the phrase _"watch this!"_ is also almost always followed by the imminent failure of whatever the person who had proclaimed it was attempting to achieve. For instance, I still remember the last time I proclaimed _"watch this!",_ back in my teenage years when I was testing a prototype hand-glider of my own creation in the Verdant Valley with my sister, only to end up two minutes later dangling by my safety harness from the branches of an elm tree.

But while my time for such bravado has gone, Mrs Baudelaire's time for such actions had not yet passed as her car swerved violently to the right, making a last second turning onto the bridge in a desperate attempt to lose the car behind.

Unfortunately for the Baudelaires, their pursuers weren't the only people that didn't expect such a quick and deliberate action from Mrs Baudelaire. The three children and their father were all flung to the left as the car veered right sharply, causing the car to turn on two wheels. Mrs Baudelaire swore violently as she realised that she had lost control of the car, and the vehicle careered through the wooden fences at the edge of the bridge and into the Stricken Stream.

As I'm sure you know, just like hairdryers, books and refrigerators, motor cars do not cope well when they find themselves in a river, and so I am sorry to say that the Baudelaires' car sank very quickly indeed when it ended up in the cold water of the Stricken Stream.

* * *

Violet was the first to surface from beneath the choppy water, and she quickly realised that she had been flung out of the frying pan and into the fire. She could see the bubbles rising as the water found its way inside their now-ruined car. Trying her best to keep her head by treading water, but she was scared, cold and wet, her legs tired quickly and she became annoyed with the matted strands of dark hair that fell across her face. After a few moments she noticed Klaus surface a few metres from her, and watched him desperately try to swim against the current towards her. Eventually he reached her, and the two siblings grabbed hold of each other in the water for safety as Violet heard Sunny's cries somewhere further down the river. She was about to call out to her baby sister when Klaus put a hand over her mouth, preventing her from speaking.

"Don't call out," Klaus said, talking into her ear with such authority that she listened to her younger brother and kept quiet. "We don't want those men to hear us, do we?"

Violet shook her head and was content to continue treading water, waiting for her parents to reach them. She could tell from the change in Sunny's voice that she had found one of her parents, if not both. Momentarily relieved, Violet looked up at the far bank of the river, but what she saw scared her.

Standing by the side of the river was Olaf and one of his accomplices, who was holding the harpoon gun, which had been reloaded since the incident at the petrol station. Fortunately for Violet and her brother, the two men hadn't appeared to notice them, but the man called Olaf was shouting at a person further down the river who she couldn't see, and she was unable to hear his words. Suddenly, Olaf was shouting something animatedly, and his accomplice fired the harpoon gun into the river.

Both Violet and Klaus looked at each other in fear as the screams echoed through the Hinterlands; the screams that belonged to their father.

"No!" said Klaus again as Violet tried to call out for her parents. "It's too late for him! We don't want to attract attention to ourselves, do we?"

For a second time, Violet reluctantly obeyed her younger brother, and upon his command, she gave herself up to the currents, letting herself be carried downstream until she was underneath the bridge that their car had dived from, and was thus hidden from Olaf's sight.

There, in the dark beneath the wooden road bridge, Violet and Klaus listened intently to the conversation that they could barely hear between their mother and Olaf. There were no more screams, but eventually the conversation died down.

It felt like eternity before Violet finally heard the car's engine as it drove off. For Violet, this was a two-edged sword, as while it meant that Olaf and his vile associates had gone, so had her only means of transport. If she wanted to escape the Hinterlands, she would have to get out on foot.

Soon, Violet became aware of how cold she was as she began to float downstream again. Her legs were numb, and she was shivering violently. She quickly became aware of the fact that the only reason why she was above the water was because of Klaus, who was constantly trying to pull her up as he treaded water for both of them.

"I'm sorry," she said, worried about Klaus, who was struggling to keep the two of them afloat. "My legs feel wooden."

"And I'm sorry," said Klaus apologetically. "That I stopped you calling out. At least that way, we would have been with out family."

"No," Violet said as firmly as she could, her teeth chattering due to the cold water. "You did the right thing. We're safe. It's what our parents would have wanted, anyway."

"Apparently, they've been trying to keep us safe from things we never knew about for years," said Klaus thoughtfully.

"Well, they did a good job of it," said Violet. "We're old enough to look after ourselves now. But while mother and father are lost, the responsibility to keep you safe must fall to me, Klaus. I'll make sure we find them again. I promise."

Klaus smiled, almost laughing at the irony of their situation.

"Alright," he said jokingly. "You can look after me once I've dragged you out of this river."

_"Oh, shut up,"_ retorted Violet jokingly, punching her brother's arm playfully. "Look - we're drifting towards the river bank! This might be our chance to get out of here."

It was a few moments more before they reached the river bank, which was muddy and slippery, but Klaus somehow managed to find a purchase with one hand, but it took all of his energy to drag Violet up the riverbank with him.

It was late afternoon, and the Hinterlands sun instantly warmed the Baudelaire siblings as they lay on the dusty earth by the riverbanks, completely worn out.

Both Violet and Klaus were cold, wet, exhausted and, for the first time in their lives, completely and utterly alone.

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed the chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	5. Chapter Five

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo, richards25 and mangesboy01 for reviewing!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

Violet was drowsy.

The eldest Baudelaire had just woken from a short sleep, and as she sat up by the banks of the Stricken Stream, she was completely blown away by what she saw. Above her, the whole sky had been transformed into a mass of palatinate blue, with hundreds of stars shining above them, glowing gently. The sun was yet to set, but as Violet sat up by the banks of the Stricken Stream, she saw the pale blue orb hovering over the horizon.

In between her and the heavens, the Hinterlands spread out around her, a flat expanse of nothingness as far as the eye could see. Looking south across the river, she could see the faint orange glow that radiated out from the petrol station her parents had torched earlier. Standing silhouetted in the glow was Klaus, looking almost angelic in the faint blue gaze of the twilight. Upon closer inspection, Violet could see that he was crying; silent tears ran down his cheeks, dripping onto his bare chest.

* * *

Klaus stood alone in the darkness by the riverbanks. While Violet had slept, he had done his best to sort out what he could for her. He'd emptied out his pockets to find leftover money from that morning's bus fare to the beach. It felt years ago to Klaus, but it had only been fourteen hours. The three and a half Dollars in his pocket were the only possessions - beside from their clothes - the two siblings had.

Smiling sadly as he had remembered this, Klaus had taken off his sodden clothes, leaving them to dry in the desert sun. He'd had nothing to for hours but relive that day over and over again in his mind. It had all gone wrong so quickly. So many events. So many unanswered questions. So many mysteries. So far still to go.

As his clothes had dried, Klaus had dressed himself again, but the hot day had forced him to keep his white, long-sleeved buttoned shirt off. He was grateful to feel cool for once. Not hot, like in his parents' stuffy car, or cold, like in the currents of the Stricken Stream, but cool.

He had sat on the dusty earth, contemplating his next move as the afternoon turned into evening. Before his eyes, the yellow light faded to a tranquil blue, and Klaus had stood up in awe, staring into the depths of space through the cloudless blue twilight.

He had remembered at time when he was much younger, when for a month one summer his favourite book to read from the Baudelaire library was a large atlas. He must have been eight or nine years old at the time, and he remembered struggling to carry the book to the windowsill where he used to sit and read for hours. He remembered his mother pointing out the vast expanse of the Hinterlands to him on the map, and telling him wondrous stories of the legendary blue sunsets of the Hinterlands.

Fascinated, both Violet and himself had pleaded with their parents to take them to the strange land further north, and his parents had promised to him to take them there one day.

So now, as Klaus stood there in the guttering light of the sunset admiring the constellations of Ursa Major, Libra and Corona Borealis in the peaceful blue light (he had read about them once in a book), he felt tinged with sadness as he remembered his parents' promise, and soon silent tears were running down his cheeks.

"Hey, Klaus."

It was Violet, who had crept up behind him and now had her arms around him from behind, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"What's up?" she whispered, concerned.

"Do you remember our parents' promise to bring us here?" Klaus whispered, shocked at how loud his voice sounded compared to the complete silence of the Hinterlands at twilight.

He didn't hear Violet answer straight away, but he felt her head nod against his right shoulder.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I remember."

"Do you reckon they can see this now?" Klaus asked, looking up again at the night sky.

"I don't know, Klaus," Violet said quietly. "I hope so."

"I hope so too."

"Do you think they're alright?"

"Who?"

"Any of them," sighed Violet. "I can't help but feel guilty for leaving them in the river."

"Don't," Klaus said, unsuccessfully trying to sound confident. "What has happened has happened, and there's nothing that we can do about it. The best thing we can do now is make the most of a bad lot, and try and find them using any means possible."

The two siblings stood together for a few moments silently staring into the twilight until Violet spoke up.

"What do you think happened to father?" Violet asked worriedly. "I mean, after that horrid man harpooned him."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Klaus said, although he thought nothing of the kind. Inside, he felt as though the burning petrol station on the horizon was his father's funeral pyre, but he didn't want to say this to his sister. "He's probably hurt badly, but I'm sure he knows what to do in this situation."

Klaus' words had led Violet to ask another question that had been bugging her all day.

"Do you think they've done things like this before?" she asked.

"Who? Mother and father?" Klaus whispered.

"Yeah," Violet nodded. "Do you think they've done this before? You know - had adventures and stuff?"

Klaus sighed.

"I'll be honest, it seems like there's a lot they haven't told us. I guess the answers can be added to the list of things that we need to find."

"I guess."

For a few moments the conversation descended back into silence again, before Klaus spoke up.

"I miss them already."

Violet smiled sadly and held her brother closer to her, years starting to form in her eyes.

"So do I."

Yet more silence.

"I doubt it'll do us any good to think things through with tired minds," Klaus sighed, yawning once as he stared up into the heavens again. "I know that we have a lot to figure out between us, but we have plenty of time to search for answers. What we need now is a good night's sleep."

Violet sighed, kissing Klaus once on the cheek before letting go of her brother.

"Alright. Goodnight, Klaus."

* * *

Klaus woke up at dawn feeling absolutely frozen, angry at himself for forgetting to put on his shirt before sleeping. Waking Violet carefully, the two agreed that the best thing that they could do was to try and reach the Mortmain Mountains themselves, and meet up with their family there.

Unfortunately, neither Klaus nor Violet knew that the source of the Stricken Stream, the river that they had slept by, was at Mount Fraught in the Mortmain Mountains, literally less than a mile from the V.F.D. Headquarters that their parents were searching for. However, Klaus had a plausible alternative; if the Mortmain Mountains were in the frozen north, the best that Violet and Klaus could do would be to head north and see what they find. It was a better plan than nothing, as the Hinterlands were dry and inhospitable; the Baudelaires were unlikely to survive there for long.

The day dragged on, and Violet and Klaus slowly began their trek north through the desert heat. But however far they walked, the two siblings felt as if they were getting nowhere. The only change in scenery was that the destroyed petrol station and the Stricken Stream had disappeared from behind them, but nothing new had appeared out of the horizon in front of them. There was just miles and miles of hard, dusty ground in all directions.

That evening, as they stopped to rest, the sunset was just as breathtaking as the previous day, but the Baudelaire siblings had lost interest in the sky; a hard day of walking had left them exhausted.

"So, just to recap," said Klaus as he sat down with Violet to rest in the evening. "What exactly do we know that's happened in the last two days?"

"Well, let's start from the beginning," Violet said. "Our house in the city burned down, and mother said we had to leave the city."

"She said it wasn't safe in the city anymore," Klaus added. "Then she told us why we were running."

"Yes," confirmed Violet. "She was part of an organisation called V.F.D with father when she was younger."

"Then came the schism," Klaus reminded her.

"Yes," Violet said. "The organisation split, and two opposing factions formed."

"Mother said that she joined the noble side," Klaus said.

"Yes, and I think she mentioned that they were called the 'volunteers'," Violet added uncertainly.

"Yes, that's right," confirmed Klaus. "She never said what the other faction were called, but I get the impression that they were the group that split."

"Well, she said that they would come back for her and father, and so they did," Violet said sadly.

"So that man our parents called Olaf was on the other side?"

"I think so," Violet said. "But I think there were more than just him."

"Obviously," said Klaus, trying to remember the previous day. "There were two other men with him."

"No, I didn't mean that," Violet said. "Don't you remember that he said he didn't burn our house down?"

"Yes, but why should he trust him?" Klaus said angrily. "He tried to attack mother, and he's probably killed father!"

Klaus' outburst made Violet gasp in shock; he had mentioned the unthinkable. They had both had their private doubts but they had not voiced them to each other. Not until then.

Eventually Violet spoke up, ending the tense silence.

"What if the fire was just an unfortunate accident?" Violet said quietly. "I know it's unlikely, but it might be true."

"I really don't think so, Violet," Klaus said, shaking his head. "It seems like too much of a coincidence that our house burns down and some psycho villain chases us across the Hinterlands on the same day."

"I know, but we just don't know the answers," Violet said, admitting the truth. "What else are we unsure about?"

"Well, Olaf seemed fairly sure that mother had been talking to some people called the Snickets. Maybe they are old friends of our parents?" Klaus suggested.

"Maybe," replied Violet. "Because Olaf knew of the Snickets too, I guess they played a role in the V.F.D schism," she theorised.

"That would make sense if the Snickets had been on the same side as our parents. If they had been comrades in some form of confrontation, then it's likely that they were friends, and would have wanted to contact her," added her brother.

"Good thinking, Klaus," smiled Violet. "We are, of course, relying on one very important thing..."

"What's that?" asked Klaus.

"That both Olaf and our mother were being entirely truthful," Violet said, causing Klaus to frown in thought.

"Even if they are being entirely truthful, there are still many unanswered questions," Klaus said frustratedly. "What does V.F.D stand for? What started the schism? Why are we involved? What is the sugar bowl, the object that Olaf was apparently after?"

"I don't know, Klaus. We just need to find someone who knows all the answers."

* * *

Both Baudelaire siblings woke early the following morning to continue their march northward. After a day and a half without food or water, both siblings felt parched and famished, so they were immensely relieved when, around midday, they spotted hills in the distance, covered in foliage.

The sign of other life inspired both Violet and Klaus, who doubled their effort to push on, but by late afternoon, the hills seemed as far away as ever.

As evening drew in again over the Hinterlands, the two children felt completely spent, an expression which means "Violet and Klaus could barely manage to put one foot in front of the other." As it had done all day, the hills, and their promise of food, water and safety, lay on the horizon.

For the first time, Violet began to think that the hills really were too far away, and that Klaus and herself would die in the heat of the Hinterlands sun.

As evening turned to twilight, Violet found herself giving up. Her hot, sweaty, weary body didn't want to go any further. Even Klaus, who had been extremely resilient in the sun - where "resilient" here means "highly determined" - was starting to tire, and both Baudelaires suddenly wondered how much longer they could keep going for.

As twilight fell into night, the hills began to look visibly closer, but they were still too far away for the Baudelaire children to build up any hope of reaching them.

Total darkness had fallen over the Hinterlands by the time that Violet and Klaus collapsed, feeling as though they would never have the energy to rise again.

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: If you liked this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	6. Chapter Six

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo and richards25 for reviewing!**

**Also, I just thought I should mention that I've borrowed names for the new characters introduced in this chapter from Philip Reeve's 'A Web of Air', a book that I'm currently reading.**

**For one of the characters, Arlo Thursday, I've borrowed a little more than a name, including parts of his physical description and one quirk of his personality. I guess he's semi-crossoverish, but he's 80-85% a character of my creation. Plus all the back-story associated to him (and there is a lot over the course of the story) is entirely my own.**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

Klaus was confused.

He was lying in bed awake, staring up at the concrete roof, where a single electric light hung by a cable. The last thing Klaus had known, he had been travelling through the Hinterlands towards those distant, unreachable hills, and now he was lying in bed.

It took him a minute to realise that he wasn't dreaming as he sat up, reached for his glasses on a bedside table next to him, and looked around the room. It had no windows, and all four walls were made of grey concrete. The room was plainly furnished, as it had a wooden wardrobe at one end and plain twin beds in the room. Glancing across, Klaus could see his elder sister sleeping in the other bed, which relieved him somewhat.

He quietly pulled back the covers, swung his bare feet round and stood on the cold floor. Until that point, he hadn't realised that he was naked except for his underwear. Glancing around the room, he saw his clothes, which appeared to have been washed, at the bottom of his bed. He got himself dressed hurriedly but quietly before walking over to Violet's bed.

He sat down carefully on the side of the bed, attempting to wake Violet gently. He knew as well as anyone that his teenage sister was often tetchy shortly after waking, so he looked to give her no reason to be angry.

* * *

Violet was annoyed.

"Go away!" she groaned as her little brother tried to coax her from her slumber, pulling the bedsheets over her head to hide from him.

_Bedsheets?_

Violet sprang up from her bed, then realised that she was only in her underwear and dived back under the covers.

"Where are we?" she asked her brother, feeling shocked.

"I don't know," Klaus replied, continuing to explore the room. "I guess someone found us out there in the desert. Whoever it was, they're very kind to give us this."

Violet nodded, staring around the room, taking in her surroundings. The room was simple enough, but after the fire, she was grateful for it. Klaus had walked over to the wooden wardrobe that was between their beds. Opening the doors, he looked inside and saw just one item of clothing; Violet's coat. Noticing her coat, another question came into the eldest Baudelaire's mind.

"Where are my clothes?" she asked her brother.

"Here," replied Klaus, picking up her sister's clothes from the foot of her bed and throwing them at her jokingly. Violet glared at him before disappearing as she attempted to dress herself beneath her bed covers. Eventually she re-emerged, and quickly pulled a ribbon from her pocket to tie her long, dark hair back. She had no hairbrush, and her matted hair was irritating her, so this was the next best thing that she could do.

"What should we do now?" Violet asked once she sat dressed on the edge of her bed.

"I guess we should find out where we are," Klaus suggested, gesturing towards the wooden door that led out of the room for the first time. "And find some food."

Neither Baudelaire had realised how hungry they were until then, when they remembered that it had been over two days since they last ate anything. Spurred on by this desire for food, Klaus slowly opened the wooden door to peer into the world outside.

Their room was at the end of a corridor, which was lined with concrete just as their room had been. It stretched for twenty yards or so until it reached a staircase that led upwards, and was washed in yellow light from electric lamps on the walls.

Intrigued, Violet and Klaus slipped out of their room and out into the corridor. They had barely moved along the corridor before they noticed a figure coming down the steps towards them.

The figure was a man, similar in age to their parents. He was relatively tall for an adult (far taller than either Violet or Klaus, who were both just over five feet tall), and had broad shoulders and short black hair. He looked like quite an imposing figure to the two Baudelaire children, but they could tell from the expression on his face that he meant no harm.

"Ah, Baudelaires!" the man said joyously, smiling. "Glad to see that you're both alright!"

Violet and Klaus were both slightly confused how this man knew them, but they had been brought up to be polite children, and so they smiled back at this strange, friendly man.

"Good afternoon, Mr..."

"Thursday!" the man said enthusiastically, grasping the hand that Klaus had offered and shaking it firmly. "Mr Daniel Thursday. I'm the head of operations here."

"Sorry to interrupt," said Violet nervously. "But where exactly are we?"

"Ah, of course!" Thursday said. "There's much you'll want me to explain, I assume?"

"Yes," said Klaus. "But if it's all the same to you, Mr Thursday, can we eat first and talk later?"

"Of course you can!" said Thursday, laughing.

"Follow me, the kitchen is up this way..."

Thursday turned and led the Baudelaires up a flight of steps to another hallway, with several doors leading off of it. As the three of them walked, Thursday started to fill in some of the gaps for the children.

"This is the small V.F.D base in the Verdant Valley," he explained.

"Where's the Verdant Valley?" asked Violet. "I've never heard of it."

"It's a small valley located in the centre of the Hinterlands," Klaus explained. "As the name suggests, plant life thrives here. It is the only hospitable landscape for miles around."

"Exactly!" said Thursday, leading the Baudelaires up to an elevator. "Our base is small, and only holds twenty people at most. Most of it is underground, which is why we use these elevators, you see."

Violet and Klaus followed Thursday into the elevator, which transported them above ground, into one large, open-plan living space. The room was built entirely from wood, with large windows on all sides allowing plenty of natural light in to brighten up the interior. Out of the windows, Klaus could see hundreds of tall deciduous trees stretching for miles down the valley, and by looking the other way, he could see that the small base was near the top of the valley. Violet walked over to the plush sofa near the wall in the area that she presumed was the living room, and Klaus followed her. Thursday walked over to the kitchen units and rummaged in one of the cupboards.

"Coffee, anyone?" he asked, to which the Baudelaires nodded.

"Yes please," both children said, taking care to remember their manners.

Thursday brought over three mugs full of the warm liquid, offered two mugs to Violet and Klaus, who accepted theirs eagerly, and sat down opposite them.

"Now," Thursday began, taking a sip of his coffee. "What do you need to know?"

"Sorry, but there's quite a lot," apologised Klaus, although Thursday brushed away his concerns.

"That doesn't matter," he smiled. "Ask away."

"What is V.F.D?" Violet asked first. "Our parents told us that they were a part of it, but never said what it was."

Thursday paused for a moment, shocked at exactly how little these children knew.

"V.F.D. stands for the Volunteer Fire Department, an organisation set up over sixty years ago," he began slowly. "They started off by fighting literal fires, but soon started to deal with metaphorical fires also, until the schism occured."

"We know about the schism," said Violet confidently. "Well, sort of."

"We know that the organisation split into two halves, but not much beyond that," Klaus added helpfully.

"The two factions became known as the Volunteers and Firestarters," continued Thursday. "Your parents, who I knew in their youth, were Volunteers. They stood for everything that the original organisation had stood for."

"What about the Firestarters?" asked Violet.

"The Firestarters came about after a few members started to become annoyed with being volunteers. They wanted to be paid for their troubles. When V.F.D. told them that they couldn't earn and remain in the society, they turned against them. That was nearly twenty years ago." Thursday paused, taking a sip from his mug of coffee. "The fighting has been sporadic ever since. In the early years, the Firestarters gained a lot of support, and many of the great Volunteer families turned their backs on the organisation as your parents did, Baudelaires. But in recent years, the uneasy balance has been restored, and there have even been brief periods of peace. But fighting has returned this past year, and many of the old families, such as yourselves, have been forced to return to the fray once again."

"So what are the Volunteers fighting for?" asked Violet.

"Now, the Volunteers are trying to eradicate the evils of the world," explained Thursday. "And that means destroying the Firestarters and their separatist group."

"Are we in danger, because of who our parents are?" asked Klaus worriedly, to which Thursday nodded gravely.

"I'm afraid so," he replied sombrely. "Enemies of the Volunteers will be after you, no doubt. So I suggest that you stay here in our protection for a little while. After all, any journey away from here will be dangerous on foot, and we only get one or two visitors by air a month."

"Ah," Klaus replied. "I see."

"What can we do while we stay here, then?" asked Violet. "Is there anyone we can help?"

"Sadly, no," replied Thursday. "My family are the only people permanently based here in the Verdant Valley. You two bring our number up to five."

"So what will you be doing?" Klaus asked Thursday.

"I've got a job to do in our records library," he replied. "My daughter will be helping me file some documents that Dewey Denouement brought with him when he arrived this morning. He was the one who brought you here, you know."

Violet and Klaus, neither of whom had ever heard of Dewey Denouement, didn't know what to say to that. Luckily for them, Thursday carried on speaking, breaking the awkward silence that had formed.

"He found both of you unconscious in the desert during the night. He'd heard of news of Count Olaf's ambush on your family, and was searching for survivors as he flew up north from the city."

Again, the Baudelaires were unsure what to say, but this time the silence was broken in a much more dramatic manner, an expression which here means "a model aeroplane flew through the open window behind Violet and crashed heavily into the coffee table."

"I wish he'd be more careful with those!" said Thursday frustratedly, but Violet was no longer listening. She had picked up the contraption from the table to find that apart from one broken wing, it was all in one piece. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it wasn't a model aeroplane at all; it was an obscure type of glider that she hadn't seen before, and beneath the crude construction (it was made from plywood and tissue paper) there were some interesting designs that could only be the product of an inventor's mind. Excited at the prospect of meeting another inventor in the least likely of places, Violet looked around for any signs of the glider's creator.

She didn't have to wait long.

"Alright, I'm sorry!" she heard a young male voice say defensively as the front door swung open. Into the lounge came a tall, scruffy boy of around Violet's age, with long, scraggly black hair that trailed to his shoulders. He had a long face with sea green eyes and he had clearly been out in the sun for too long, as he was sweating profusely. The boy was only wearing a pair of khaki shorts, and Violet could see that he was heavily tanned. Violet imagined that without the scruffiness, the boy might have been quite good looking.

He half-walked, half-ran through the open-plan building towards Thursday, but suddenly stopped in his tracks when he looked up to find Violet holding the model glider. For a moment the two stared at each other intensely before Thursday cut in to make the formal introduction.

"Arlo, meet our two new guests, Violet and Klaus Baudelaire. Baudelaires, meet my son, Arlo Thursday."

"Hello Arlo, pleased to meet you," smiled Violet and Klaus politely. "Hi," he said casually, sitting down on the sofa next to his father. "Can I have my glider back please?" he asked Violet.

"Ah, yes! I remember now!" exclaimed Dan Thursday, interrupting. "From what I've heard about you, Violet, you two-" he gestured at both Violet and Arlo "-should have quite a lot in common."

Thursday then stood up quickly, drinking the last of his coffee.

"Come on, Klaus," he said. "I'll show you our records library, if you like."

I should mention, dear reader, that upon hearing the word "library", Klaus' face lit up just as mine would upon hearing the phrase "no wind turbulence today, sir", and that he sprang to his feet, eagerly following Thursday to the elevator.

After a few seconds they were gone, and Violet was left alone with her fellow inventor.

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: If you liked this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	7. Chapter Seven

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo and richards25 for reviewing!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

Violet was happy.

She was walking up the steep slopes of the Verdant Valley through the trees with Arlo Thursday, the fifteen-year-old boy from the valley's base. Before the two had set out that afternoon, Arlo had told Violet of his interests in flight, and how he was working on creating a human-powered glider, to allow him to fly ever further distances. But rather than showing Violet all of his scale models and ideas as she had first wanted, he had insisted that he showed her something first.

"When did you first become interested in flight?" Violet asked curiously as the two inventors slowly walked up the valley together.

"Oh, I can't remember," Arlo replied. "I've been building models and sketching diagrams for years."

"Do you have any plans or diagrams with you?" Violet asked, eager to find out as much about Arlo's crazy inventions as possible.

"A few," he replied, and stopped walking for a few moments to take off the massive rucksack that he had been carrying. He unzipped the top and pulled out a small notebook with a solid green cover that instantly looked familiar to her. Her father rescued identical books from the Baudelaire mansion as it burned. Obviously the books were important to her parents.

"What's that?" Violet asked, gesturing to the small book.

"It's a commonplace book," replied Arlo.

"What's it for?"

"All V.F.D. members are issued with one," he explained. "You're supposed to write down any important information that you find in it, so that you never forget. As I don't do much work to support the Volunteers, I just use mine to jot down my inventive plans and diagrams."

"Can I have a look?" Violet asked curiously.

"Sure," Arlo smiled, throwing the small green book to Violet, who caught it. "If you want one of your own, I can get you one once we're home."

"Thanks," Violet smiled.

* * *

For the rest of the short journey up the slope of the valley, Violet found herself drawn in by the scruffy notes and drawings in Arlo's commonplace book, that theorised over every aspect of gliders, from wing shape to possible methods of power.

The rest of the climb passed quickly, and soon Violet and Arlo were at the top of the valley. They had broken free of the canopy, and the view was unhindered in all directions. To the north lay the desolate, flat wasteland of the Hinterlands, which crept round to both the East and the West. In the south, the foliage that covered the Verdant Valley was a startlingly bright shade of green, extending for fifteen miles down the valley from Violet's position. She saw a single stream filled with clear, pristine water meander through the valley to a pool at its end, where the foliage runs out and the landscape returns to the dry flatland of the Hinterlands.

Arlo had sat on a rock at the top of the hill, taken the heavy rucksack from his back, retrieved a water bottle from it, and had drank greedily. He was used to this sort of exercise, though, and recovered quickly from his difficult climb to the hill at the end of the valley. Violet had noticed how worn-out he had looked at the end of the climb, but she knew that he must have been incredibly fit. After all, the well-toned muscles that he showed off by walking around shirtless everywhere hadn't come from nothing, had they?

Arlo came to stand by Violet for a moment as she looked down over the valley.

"Lovely view, isn't it?" he said.

"Yes," said Violet, half-listening, who was still admiring the view. "It's beautiful."

Suddenly, Violet noticed something in the woods that made her gasp, shocked.

"What is it?" Arlo asked, concerned.

"Is that building down there our base?" Violet asked, gesturing to a wooden building in the valley.

"Yeah, that's it," agreed Arlo, confirming Violet's presumptions.

"From above, why does it look like an eye?" she asked. It reminded her of the creepy tattoo she had seen on the ankle of the man who had followed her parents to that petrol station, Count Olaf.

"It's the emblem of V.F.D.," Arlo said helpfully. "Older members like to use it everywhere, including in architecture. All members have it tattoed onto their ankle, so that they can identify each other. At least, they used to before the schism."

"Then why did the man we met, Count Olaf, have one?"

"Olaf was one of the first men to defect to the Firestarters," said Arlo. "He was too much of a coward to fight for his beliefs; he took the easy way out."

Arlo's words brought back memories of her mother calling Olaf a coward, but Violet was able to suppress them.

"They've stopped using the eye tattoos now," continued Arlo. "As members of both sides of the schism have them, it's impossible to tell if the tattoos signal friend or foe. They stopped giving them to new members a few years ago. For instance, my father has a tattoo, but my sister and I don't."

"Oh, alright," said Violet, smiling. "Thanks for explaining. It was a little confusing."

"No problem," Arlo replied, and he turned back to where he had placed his rucksack to pull out another plywood and tissue paper model.

"Now, back to the job in hand," Arlo smiled at Violet before hurling the model down into the valley. Violet and Arlo stood side by side for a few moments, watching the model tumble and twirl through the trees.

"How're you going to get that back?" Violet asked.

"I probably won't," Arlo replied, and she could tell that he wouldn't be bothered if he never saw that model glider again. "They are quick and cheap to build, so I don't care if I lose a few. Of course, some find their way home..." he paused for a moment, smiling at how his previous model had managed to be waiting for him when he'd returned home.

"Why do you make so many models just to lose them?"

"To test the wind, of course!" Arlo answered, grabbing a second model from his bag and sending it down the valley after the other glider. It took a similar trajectory to its predecessor, but it flew slightly straighter.

"What do you need to test the wind for?" Violet asked, and Arlo answered not with words, but by beckoning her over to his large rucksack. He rummaged around for a few moments before shrugging and tipping the whole bag upside down so that several poles and sheets of blue fabric fell out and clattered against the ground. He worked almost like clockwork as within a few moments, his creation had come to life.

What Arlo had constructed was a full-size glider, made of aluminium and some toughened, treated fabric that Violet didn't know. The wingspan must have been around ten feet, and Arlo pulled the glider onto his back, fastening in to him with crude straps.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Violet asked worriedly, feeling concerned for her fellow inventor.

"No," he replied, grinning foolishly. "But what's life without a little risk?"

And with that, Arlo Thursday took two or three running steps before leaping off of the hill and into the sky. Violet let out a gasp of horror before watching her new friend soar away down the valley, tumbling and flipping through the trees, listening to his laugh bounce back off of the steep valley walls.

* * *

The Baudelaire children enjoyed the following week in the Verdant Valley immensely.

Klaus spent many afternoons in the small records library at the base with Mr Thursday and his daughter, Anna. The records office held many hundreds of important V.F.D files about many of the members of the organisation. After Mr Thursday had, with Klaus' help, finished filing the new information that had arrived on that first day, he gave Klaus permission to read through some of the less important files in the records library. Unfortunately, he couldn't find much to do with his parents' role in V.F.D. in the library, but he did learn a lot about V.F.D's influence globally, and what places were safe for Volunteers (and Klaus now considered himself a Volunteer) to go. Because of his situation, Klaus found his research to be most enjoyable, and found that he was having a good time in the Verdant Valley.

Violet was also enjoying her time at the small V.F.D. base. She spent most of her days with Arlo, either assisting him with his plans and scale models in his room or walking up to the top of the valley with him to help him test them.

She liked working with Arlo; as much as her old family had supported and tried to challenge her inventing mind, their efforts were nothing compared to helping Arlo with his projects. From their interests in engineering, Violet found that she had more in common with Arlo than she had first thought. A lot of it was just little things, like the type of books that he read to his favourite sport, but it all made for pleasant conversation between between the two young people. On top of this, Arlo was kind to her, and was very outgoing for a person who spent many months at a time with little company. Over the course of ten days, she grew to appreciate his sense of humour and learn all the little idiosyncrasies that he had, and the two had quickly become close friends.

At this point I should mention that like most good things, the idyllic life in the Verdant Valley did not last for the Baudelaire siblings. Violet and Klaus barely lasted a week before Mr Thursday dropped a bombshell.

Now, as I'm sure you know, the phrase "dropping a bombshell" is often used to describe a piece of news that will have a significant effect on a person's lives, and that was exactly the effect that Mr Thursday's news had on the Baudelaire children that evening as they met for dinner.

"Children," he said seriously as the Baudelaires entered the open-plan room on the top floor of the base. "I have received word from the V.F.D. base Mortmain Mountains."

He paused for a moment, as though he needed to work out how to break the news to the Baudelaires.

"Your father arrived there two night's ago. He is heavily injured, but is in a serious but stable condition."

The Baudelaire children looked at each other, unsure of whether to feel concerned for their father's health or relieved that their fears (that their father had died) had been disproven.

"Thank-you for telling us," Violet said politely for Mr Thursday, but her temporary guardian had not yet finished.

"Your father wishes for you to visit him in the mountains," Mr Thursday explained. "I suggest that you set out on foot in the morning. The Mortmains are a hundred miles north-west. It'll take you a week by foot."

"Are there any air transports coming soon?" Violet asked nervously. After her last journey through the Hinterlands, she wasn't overly keen on another one.

"I don't know," asked Thursday. "I doubt there will be another for a couple of weeks, and you don't want to keep your father waiting, do you?"

Klaus, realising their minor dilemma, had a couple of questions to ask.

"Will it be safe to travel through the Hinterlands?" he asked.

"You should be fine, Baudelaires," Thursday replied. "We can keep you well-stocked in supplies for the journey."

"Will we have help along the way?" asked Violet, who was having too much fun in the Verdant Valley to want an unnecessary journey.

"I'll go with them," said Arlo. "I've got nothing better to do, and I'm sure the Baudelaires could do with as much help as possible," he said eagerly, glancing at Violet.

"Well, if you insist, I suppose you can help them," Thursday said, rising from the table in a manner that held such authority that the others all listened attentively to his every word.

"You'd better start gathering supplies," he said. "You've got an important day ahead of you."

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	8. Chapter Eight

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo, richards25 and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing the last chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Klaus was anxious.

Of course, it is perfectly natural to be anxious when you are about to undertake a long journey by foot into the unknown north. I once remember feeling as anxious as Klaus Baudelaire was when I undertook a long journey from the frozen tundra of the north to the forests north of the city when I was only a couple of years older than he was on that morning. But like him, I had a couple of trustworthy friends with me, who helped me through the journey.

But Klaus, of course, did not know of other travellers through the Hinterlands, so his only source of knowledge on the topic was his own, and his own first voyage through the desert was almost a total disaster, if it wasn't for the charity of a man he never knew, Dewey Denouement.

He stood at the exit of the V.F.D. base in the Verdant Valley, ready to leave. The morning was warm, and so Klaus was dressed only in a shirt and trousers (other, warmer clothes were packed in his rucksack) as he leaned against the door frame, reading from his new royal blue commonplace book. Inside, he had written down Mr Thursday's instruction on how to find the V.F.D. Headquarters once the trio reached the Mortmain Mountains.

Violet stood outside in the trees near the building, wearing clothes of a similar purpose to her brother. She, too, had packed for all weather conditions, but the weather had been so consistently hot and sunny throughout the previous fortnight that Violet doubted that she'd need as much as a jumper on the whole journey.

Arlo was the last to be ready, wishing his father and sister goodbye as he came out of the elevator from his underground bedroom. For once he was fully clothed, with a baggy white t-shirt covering his torso, and he also wore a pair of khaki shorts and white training shoes. As ever, he carried his large blue rucksack on his back, and also carried a three-man tent that his father had lent him for the journey.

"All ready to go? he asked once he arrived with the Baudelaires, smiling.

"Yes," replied Violet, sharing his smile. "I don't see why we should wait any longer."

The first day of their long journey was pleasant enough. It was mid-day by the time the trio had left the Verdant Valley, where they were greeted by the warm sun once they were clear of the foliage. Klaus judged their orientation by the sun, and the three seat off north-west towards the mountains.

The day was long, and all three were tired by the time that they decided to set up camp that evening. In the blue light of the wondrous Hinterlands sunset, the three set up their tent and sat down for an evening meal. Neither Violet nor Klaus were impractical people, but Arlo showed them up that evening, as he almost did everything by himself. The Baudelaires almost felt embarrassed by their lack of competence with tents and the like.

The evening meal that night was tinned soup, cooked on a gas burner that Arlo had brought with him. That evening, it was Klaus who started the conversation. In comparison with his sister, Klaus had spent barely any time with the young inventor from the Verdant Valley, and still wanted to know about his association with the organisation that the two Baudelaires had suddenly been dragged into.

"Have you ever been to the Mortmain Mountains Headquarters before?" he asked Arlo curiously.

"Once," Arlo replied. "But it was many years ago, with my late mother. I barely remember a thing about it. There was a man I remembered seeing there. That was the clearest memory. His name was Montgomery, a man in his mid-late thirties. He was a herpetologist."

"He sounds like an interesting person," Violet said. "And I'm sure Klaus would learn a lot from him."

Klaus nodded. He liked the sound of Montgomery, even though he knew it was unwise to let first impressions form an opinion. But rather than pursuing the matter further, he asked a different question.

"Do you know many members of V.F.D.?" Klaus asked.

"Quite a few," was Arlo's reply. "Of course, there are several regulars to our small base. Peter Quagmire, for one. A researcher, primarily, who gives a great deal of documents to my father's records library. His role in the organisation seems to be to document everyone else's tales of missions and journeys around the world. He often works with Dewey Denouement, the man who rescued you two from the Hinterlands last week."

"Does anyone else visit you a lot?" asked Violet.

"A few," replied Arlo. "Dewey's partner, Kit Snicket, is often with him when he visits us."

_Kit Snicket, _Violet thought. _Is she the one who our parents used to know?_

"Are the Snickets a family?" Violet asked. "Count Olaf thought that my parents had been in touch with them."

"They are a family," Arlo confirmed. "A whole generation of Volunteers seem to be related to them in some way or another. The three Snicket siblings, along with their parents, cousins, aunts and uncles provided a lot of support for the Volunteers during the early years of the schism."

"Who were the Snicket siblings?" Violent asked, as she began to feel as though the Snicket family may already have had a significant impact on the lives of the Baudelaire children without them knowing it. After all, without the Snickets, the schism would undoubtedly have taken a very different route, and Count Olaf would never have pursued the Baudelaire parents if he hadn't suspected them of talking to members of this mysterious family.

"Two twins, Jacques and Kit," replied Arlo. "And their younger brother, Lemony. Along with many other families, they went into hiding when the schism turned against the Volunteers. They've come back to us in the last year or two. I've seen Jacques a few times. Like Kit, he's more openly opposed to the Firestarters than most of us. Many of V.F.D.'s members look for subtle ways to strike out against the opposition. The Snickets are often openly militant, and fight as strongly as anyone to protect the people and places that they love."

_There's another name I recognise, _thought Violet. _It was only a passing comment, but mother did mention a Lemony on that car journey. Maybe the whole family knew my parents..._

"Who was Lemony?" she asked. "Have you ever met him?"

"Once," Arlo said. "He's not the most outgoing of characters. Quick-minded and a reputable writer, he's the last person you'd expect to be on the front lines, but he does his part for the cause. V.F.D. trained him in rhetorical analysis when he was younger."

"They trained him?" Klaus asked, slightly unsure of what Arlo meant.

"Yeah," Arlo replied casually. "All V.F.D. members join the organisation at a young age, and are trained into adulthood in an area of interest."

"Were you trained in anything?" Violet asked Arlo inquisitively.

"I was trained in engineering," replied Arlo. "From the age of eight until last year. Most neophytes - young Volunteers - are taken to the Headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains to be trained, but I was able to be trained by my father at the base in the Verdant Valley instead. My sister, who is currently being trained in journalism, is doing exactly the same thing."

"If we joined the organisation, would we be trained?" Klaus asked, who was becoming more and more interested in joining V.F.D. by the minute. It seemed to him as if the members of the society had almost limitless knowledge.

"You're a little older than most neophytes," Arlo said truthfully. "But I see no reason why you couldn't get training once we're in the Mortmains."

For a while, the conversation between Klaus and Arlo drifted onto other topics, but Violet retired to their tent to think. She lay on her back on her sleeping bag, staring at the roof of the tent, thinking about what Arlo had just told her. It seemed to her that if she wanted any more answers about who her parents were before they settled down in the city, she wouldn't be able to get them from Arlo. She needed to speak to someone who _actually knew_ her parents. Someone who had was in the organisation with them, who knew what they had been up to in their days in V.F.D.

She needed to speak to someone like Kit Snicket or her brothers.

* * *

It was late that evening when Klaus and Arlo joined her in the tent, when the two boys finally grew tired. Like the Baudelaire children, Arlo had a keen, intelligent mind, and was very interested in Klaus' knowledge of the night sky and its constellations. In the light of the Hinterlands twilight, the view was simply spectacular, and Arlo hadn't seen it many more times than Klaus had, despite having lived so close to the Hinterlands for many years.

* * *

The morning brought bad news; the weather had changed for the worse. Waking to rain, the trio stepped outside to find that rain had turned the dirt underfoot into slippery mud. The rain made it impossible for Arlo to light a fire, and so the Baudelaires had to eat their tinned soup cold for their breakfast. From there, they trudged on slowly, huddled up in their coats, and by the evening of that second day, the Verdant Valley had just disappeared below the horizon thirty miles behind them.

By the third day, the journey was beginning to get monotonous. Luckily the rain had stopped, and the mud was drying on the ground, but three days of nothing but walking was taking its toll on the trio. They had managed to keep themselves entertained, at least. Their constant conversation had ventured to many topics, from V.F.D. to libraries, and from gliders to motor cars. Arlo had brought a couple of his model gliders with him, and had entertained himself by throwing the plywood and tissue paper models on ahead of the trio as they walked.

Then, late in the afternoon on that third day, Arlo sighted something in the sky ahead of them.

"I think it's a helicopter," Klaus said, squinting into the sky at the speck of black, which was steadily getting larger.

"I'll signal to it," said Arlo, reaching into his bag to pull out three small green tubes.

"What are they?" asked Violet, wondering what purpose the small devices might serve.

"They are Verdant Flammable Devices," explained Arlo. "When lit, they release thick clouds of dark green smoke. We can use them to signal to the helicopter pilot."

He reached into his pockets for his shorts, but Violet tried to stop him.

"Is this a V.F.D. signalling system?" she asked him.

"Yeah, so-"

"Won't both the Volunteers and the Firestarters use these then? Isn't there a risk that you're giving us away to our enemies."

To this, Arlo just shrugged and lit a match.

"What's life without a little risk?" he said, lighting the first of the Verdant Flammable Devices. As Arlo had expected, plumes of dark green smoke belched from it, and Arlo dropped it on the floor, turning to light a second.

"I'd stand further back, if I were you. The smell is quite bad," he told the Baudelaires before going to stand with them.

Sure enough, the helicopter noticed their signal, and flew lower, eventually hovering over the three children. The helicopter was small and black, and looked as though it would hold four or five people at the most. Klaus could see a single pilot, who was silhouetted by the sun. After hovering for a minute or two, the helicopter slowly lowered itself to land on the dusty ground of the Hinterlands. Its engines turned off and the children could see the figure preparing to leave the aircraft.

Finally, the hatch on the side of the helicopter opened, and a single man stepped out into the desert thirty yards from the three children.

The man wore a long coat that was unbuttoned to reveal a plain white, shirt similar to Klaus'. Realising the heat, he took off the coat and slung it back into the helicopter before shutting the hatch. He wore shorts similar to Arlo's, and short socks revealed a tattoo of the V.F.D. eye on his left ankle. The man was moderately tall, with a broad figure, short brown hair and brown eyes. To the Baudelaires, the man seemed strangely familiar, although neither Violet nor Klaus could work out why.

"Speak of the devil," muttered Arlo, who walked towards the man with his arms open, smiling.

"Ah, Master Thursday!" the man said joyfully, returning Arlo's smile as the two embraced like old friends. "What brings you to the emptiness of the Hinterlands on this fine day?"

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: Please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	9. Chapter Nine

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing the last chapter!**

**The updates are so frequent because I've got tonnes of ideas flying round my head and I'm trying to get pen to paper (figuratively speaking, of course) as quickly as possible so that I don't forget any of it.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

As I'm sure that you know, it is never a good idea to talk to strangers, especially not in a vast desert, thirty miles from the nearest person. For the Baudelaires, however, the situation was slightly safer, as their travelling companion (who they had only known for just under two weeks) could vouch for the man who had just appeared out of the helicopter.

Despite this, Klaus was uncertain.

Violet may have trusted Arlo enough to be trusting of the man who was now deep in conversation with the boy from the Verdant Valley, but Klaus was not yet. As Arlo and the the man that he clearly knew rather well split apart for a moment, he made the introductions.

"Baudelaires," he said, in a voice that sounded far too formal to Violet and Klaus. "This is Jacques Snicket."

Violet raised an eyebrow at this and smiled. It looked as though she would be getting the answers, after all. Klaus merely walked towards the man and smiled, offering out his hand, which Jacques shook.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Mr Snicket," he said politely.

"Please, call me Jacques," Jacques replied. "I can never be bothered with formalities."

"What brings you over the Hinterlands?" asked Arlo.

"Well, I was actually heading to your father's base," Jacques replied, making the three children feel slightly annoyed that they hadn't waited two days to get a lift to the Mortmain Mountains. "I have been informed that Dewey Denouement has a couple of complete volumes of files that need to be transferred to the grand library in the headquarters."

"What are they?" Violet asked curiously.

"Well, I can't tell you that," Jacques replied, tapping a finger to his nose, an expression often used when a person is trying to keep something hidden from another. "let's just say that they are of great importance to the Volunteers, and we would rather keep our secrets guarded in the safest place of all."

He paused for a moment, as though he was still taking in the appearance of the two Baudelaire children, who he had not seen for many years.

"And what are you three doing out here alone in the Hinterlands?" he asked.

"We're heading for the Mortmain Mountains," Violet replied. "We have been told that our father is there."

"Ah, of course!" Jacques smiled. "Well, you'll be pleased to know that he's recovering. It'll be a while until he's back to full fitness, but we expect him to make a full recovery."

"That's brilliant news," said Klaus, who felt relieved to know that his father wasn't going to die after all. "Thank-you for telling us."

"If you're bound for the Mortmains," continued Jacques. "I could always give you three a lift there. I'm sure you're both eager to see your father again."

"Yes please," said Violet. "I'm not sure if I'm up to several more days of walking."

"Well, you'd better come aboard," Jacques laughed. "I've got things to do, and I'd rather not hang around out here in the sun any longer than I need to."

* * *

And so the Baudelaires found themselves back at square one, a phrase which here means "back at the Verdant Valley base, just three days after they left it." They spent a night in the company of the Thursday family whilst Jacques Snicket rummaged through the records library, eventually returning with two A4-sized documents, each ten or fifteen sheets thick.

They left in the light of dawn the following day, and Jacques said that he expected for the four of them to arrive at the V.F.D. Headquarters within four hours, allowing for good weather. The long journey gave Violet what she believed to be a perfect opportunity to ask Jacques a few of the things that had been troubling her.

"Mr Snicket," she started, and then paused, remembering that the pilot wished to be called Jacques. "jacques, have I ever met you before?"

The pilot turned around and smiled at her.

"Once or twice," he said. "But you were very young, Violet. I doubt you'll have remembered me."

"I thought my parents had given up contact with the rest of V.F.D. after I was born," Violet said.

"Oh, they had," Jacques confirmed. "But that didn't stop a few of us dropping by occasionally during those first few years. Of course, my own family had abandoned V.F.D. too, but many of us understood that the Firestarters would still think of us as a threat due to our reputation. So we did meet a few times when you were very young, Violet. I think the last time I saw you, you were almost six years old. I haven't spoken to your parents in eight years."

"And what of your siblings?" asked Klaus. "Did they ever meet our parents during those years?"

"Kit did," replied Jacques. "She was good friends with your mother. I think the last time they met was about six years ago. They met in the city to go to see an opera; _La Forza del Destino_, I believe. An eventful evening, or so I heard from my sister later."

"What happened?" Violet asked. She remembered her mother going our to the opera that night when she was eight. She came back late, claiming it to be the most eventful opera she had ever seen.

"As far as I'm aware," Jacques explained. "There was an interruption caused by the Firestarters, who had found them. I'm unaware as to whether anyone was seriously hurt, but I know that there was violence involved. After that, my sister never made contact with the Baudelaires again. She'll be glad to see that they're back supporting the cause again."

"Aren't V.F.D. meant to be a peaceful organisation?" Klaus asked.

"Yes," Jacques sighed. "But since the schism began, the Firestarters have always resorted to violence. More and more, we have been forced to defend ourselves with violence. We were originally observers, striking out against our enemies by peaceful means, but the Firestarters' actions cause us to fight fire with fire, both literally and figuratively."

"Were our parents ever violent?" Violet asked, hoping that her parent shad shown some refrain, even in the face of their enemies.

"Only when they had to be," he said. "Your father was especially peaceful. Your mother, however, would stand with us and fight when necessary."

"Were our parents trained by V.F.D.?" Klaus asked, remembering what Arlo had told him about the neophytes' training.

"When they were young, yes," Jacques replied. "Your father took classes in animal domestication, whereas your mother was trained in the art of rhetoric."

"Wasn't that similar to what your brother did, Jacques?" asked Arlo.

Jacques was slightly thrown by Arlo's question, as he couldn't imagine his brother to open up to a young child so much as to discuss his V.F.D. training.

"Yes," he finally said. "Lemony and Beatrice were good friends in their youth."

"Then why did our parents never mention a Lemony to us?" Violet asked. "If they were old friends, then surely our parents would have mentioned him at some point?"

Jacques paused for a moment again before answering.

"Now, that is not for me to say," he said cautiously. "You'll have to pursue that matter with someone else."

* * *

After that, the conversation died away for a while as the helicopter continued its journey north-west. Half way through the journey, Jacques sighted the end of the Hinterlands ahead. The land began to rise, and sharp, jagged, snow-capped peaks became visible in the distance.

"The Mortmain Mountains are up ahead," Jacques announced. "I think we'll be flying over them within the next twenty minutes."

He paused for a moment, fiddling with the controls of the helicopter before continuing.

"We do, however, have one issue," he explained to the children. "My small helicopter only has a limited amount of fuel, and so I have to fly as the crow flies to the Headquarters."

"What's the issue with that?" asked Arlo, not understanding what the issue was.

"By flying on that route," explained Jacques. "We have to pass within range of a Firestarter base."

"Oh," said Violet, who was now feeling slightly worried. "Aren't you carrying important files, Jacques. Won't that mean that they will target you?"

"They don't know that," he replied. "But I fear that they might recognise me anyway."

"Is there no way of avoiding them?" Klaus asked.

"Not unless you want a helicopter crash," Jacques explained. "But you three don't have to come with me. I understand what you two have been through in the past fortnight, Baudelaires. It would be easy for me to drop you off here, and let you walk the rest of the journey. There are only about thirty miles left. All you would have to do is-"

"- walk to the edge of the mountains, navigate round clockwise until we reach the Stricken Stream, and then follow the river to the Headquarters," Klaus said, reciting the instructions that he had written in his commonplace book. "We know what we would need to do, Jacques.

"I'm glad to see that you're prepared," Jacques smiled. "You could make good Volunteers, just like your parents."

"Now's not the time for nostalgic discussion," Violet interrupted. "We need to make a decision, or we'll run out of time. Then we'll have to fly on with Jacques regardless of our decision. Personally, I'd rather land. As much as I appreciate the help, Jacques, I'd rather be guaranteed to arrive in one piece."

"Well, I'd rather stay with Jacques and fly to the Headquarters," said Klaus, disagreeing with his sister. "I don't want to end up in the Hinterlands again."

"I guess it's up to you, Arlo," said Violet defeatedly, as she already knew what her friend would choose to do.

"I say we stay with Jacques," Arlo said, making the final decision. "It'll be quicker, and I trust that Jacques knows what he's doing. And anyway, what's life without a little risk?" he grinned foolishly, causing Violet to sigh, resigned to her fate.

"Fine," she said frustratedly. "We'll stay with you, Jacques. But nobody blame me when things go wrong."

* * *

Everyone aboard the helicopter began to get nervous as the small base came into view at the foot of the mountains. It was small for a Firestarter base, as it was only just over thirty miles from the V.F.D. Headquarters, and the few separatists who were based there didn't want to attract attention to themselves. The base was at the foot of two of the smaller peaks of the Mortmain Mountains, nestled in a gap where the two met. The steep walls of the mountains made the the base impregnable from behind, and the front of the base was guarded by a stone wall with two turrets, behind which the main building - shaped like an eye - was situated.

Everyone became evermore anxious as Jacques announced that the small helicopter was within range of the rockets that were positioned atop the turrets of the base, and for a few minutes nothing happened.

All four of the travellers were starting to get complacent as the helicopter flew within a mile of the base.

Then the assault began.

Suddenly a brace of rockets came flying past the front of the helicopter, and Jacques swore as he tried to turn the helicopter away. However, as anyone who has ever flown will tell you, most aircraft are not designed for their agility, so even though Jacques' small helicopter was possibly the best that the Baudelaires could hope for, the machine still felt unresponsive and sluggish as Jacques attempted to weave between the frequent rockets. Looking down out of the windows, Violet could see the tiny dots of men rushing around the rocket launchers on the turrets, then flinched as the gun spat out missiles towards her.

Even Jacques, who had flown this route on multiple occasions, began to get a little worried. _Why is there so heavy resistance?_ he thought. _Could they possibly know about the files?_ But then suddenly he was too busy to speculate as to the cause of his problems, as he was distracted by the problem himself. Suddenly all the guns fired at once, and Jacques knew his efforts had been futile. Cursing his own bad luck, he realised at last that he was powerless to escape.

Violet launched herself across the cabin as a rocket struck the helicopter on the tail near her window, and ended up in a heap at Arlo's feet. But the damage had been done to the tail of the plane, and Jacques swore as he realised that he no longer had control. Realising that he was stranded in midair, he moved away from the controls, trying to retrieve the emergency parachutes, which were kept under the passenger's seats in the compartment behind him, where the children were seated.

Violet was soon joined on the floor of the compartment by Klaus and Arlo, who landed on top of her as the helicopter started to swing uncontrollably. Her fears heightened even further when she saw Jacques appear in the doorway into the cabin, and wondered why he was away from the controls.

"I've lost control," he said hurriedly, with a tone of voice somewhere between frantic and frightened. "We've got to-"

Then the second rocket struck, and everything went black.

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed the chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is appreciated :)**


	10. Chapter Ten

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo, richards25 and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing the last chapter! The support is appreciated :)**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Violet was terrified.

She came round with the helicopter still spinning madly in the air. Feeling sick with dizziness, she tried to get to her feet, but found Arlo and Klaus to be slumped over her, both of them unconscious. Jacques Snicket was nowhere to be seen, as he had clearly decided to save himself, but he had at least left three parachutes for the children. Sadly, they were out of Violet's reach as she lay on the floor of the aircraft, pinned beneath the weight of two teenage boys.

Suddenly there was another almighty crash, and everything disappeared to black once again.

* * *

When Violet woke the next time, she felt as though she was on fire. Then, opening her eyes, she saw the it is wasn't her that was on fire, but the remains of the helicopter that lay sprawled all around her. She was in a small crevice, almost completely covered by the twisted metal above her, and wondered if anyone else survived the fall. Except from ringing ears, a splitting headache and a few cuts and bruises on her lower back and legs, Violet felt alright. No major damage had been done.

Rolling over on her back to look towards where she had seen a shaft of light come into her small space, she saw a figure silhouetted in the space, lying next to her. She quickly identified the person as Arlo, who was lying on his side away from her, looking out at the world beyond the wreck. She could also see that her friend had fared much worse than her in the crash, a phrase which here means "had a massive gash in his leg where a shard of metal had cut through him, and his blood was pouring into the Hinterlands earth around him."

Violet, suddenly concerned for Arlo, called out his name, but the boy by her side, reached up and clamped a hand over her mouth, pointing out towards the land beyond the wreck.

Violet struggled to stay quiet once she saw what was waiting outside.

Past the torn metal and embers of the burning wreck that had once been Jacques Snicket's helicopter, there was roughly a mile before the tall walls of the Firestarter base loomed in the mountains. But in between Violet and the mountains, she could see many men heading towards the wreck. She didn't realise quite how close they were until once walked into a gap from the wreckage, barely ten feet from where Arlo lay. Both Violet and Arlo edged backwards, so that nothing of them was sticking out for the men to see. Several more congregated - where "congregated" here means "gathered" - in a gap in the wreckage nearby to Violet and Arlo. The debris had spread out over quite a large area, so it was easy for men to navigate through it.

As all the men then split up to search through the wreckage, Violet spotted who she thought to be their leader; a tall, slender man with two hooks instead of hands. Terrified further by this man who was standing just fifteen yards from her, Violet diverted their attention to the men who were rummaging through the debris for survivors, such as Arlo and herself.

Eventually the men grouped together again at another point of the wreckage, and Violet saw them pull free a limp figure, who they dragged out of the wreckage towards their leader. It took Violet only a moment to realise that the battered and bruised figure that the men were carrying was Klaus. Soon she found herself crying silent tears uncontrollably as her last relative was carried away from her, and there was nothing she could do about it. _What had happened to him in the crash? _Violet thought. _He looked unconscious, at best. I hope he's alright..._

After the men left, Arlo and Violet stayed huddled together in the warm embers of the debris for many hours, until they were finally sure that the coast was clear, an expression that here means "all the men had returned to their base, and Violet and Arlo were alone in the wreck of Jacques Snicket's helicopter."

Arlo clambered out of their small crevice in the wreckage, hesitantly got to his feet and tried to walk away to search the wreckage, but collapsed as his injured leg gave way from under him. Most of the bleeding had stopped, but the wound was still painful, and his leg was weak.

"Arlo!" Violet cried, who slipped out of their hiding place to help her friend get back to his feet.

"I'll be fine, Violet," Arlo insisted as she ran to his aid, but as he attempted to get back to his feet, he collapsed to the ground again, where he lay on his back, exhausted.

"You're not fine," Violet said, leaning down to take Arlo's hand to pull him to his feet. Reaching over Arlo's shoulder to give him balance, she led her friend away through the wreckage to the flat land beyond. She sat him down and leant him against part of the wreckage, hidden from the view of the base.

With Arlo safe for the time being, Violet returned to the debris field to scavenge supplies from the fallen aircraft. All around her lay twisted, melted strips of metal and glass, covered with scorched marks from the burnt aviation fuel. Taking care to only touch cooler parts of the wreck, Violet slowly began a more methodical search of the wreckage than the Firestarter men had earlier. For a while her search was fruitless, but she eventually located where the luggage compartment of the helicopter had been. Due to the way the helicopter had landed, the luggage compartment was one of the most complete sections of the aircraft remaining. However, the section was almost completely encased in ruined pieces of metal. She could look in, and see that Arlo's and Klaus' luggage, along with her own, was still in there intact, but there wasn't even a large enough gap in the metal for Violet to reach her arm in.

Then she suddenly had an idea.

She ran over to another section of the wreck where the glow red-hot metal could still be seen in the centre of a mound. Picking up a long shard of metal that lay nearby on the floor, Violet fed one end into the red-hot mound, heating up on end of the shard of metal that she held. Eventually, the metal began to glow red-hot, at which point she quickly pulled it from the mound of metal and carried it over to the metal prison that held her belongings.

Her idea had been to use the heated metal as a sort of crude welding torch, using the heat to melt the metal encasing her bags, and melt the joints, allowing her to fold back the metal, and reach in to retrieve her belongings. Luckily, the day was warm as the sun shone down that afternoon, the metal had already been heated to a burning temperature, and it only took Violet a few minutes to prise a way into the ruined luggage compartment. She dragged out her own rucksack, and then heaved out Arlo's heavy one after it. Then, looking down into the opening, she saw Klaus' rucksack, which pained her. For a moment she stood there, looking into the compartment, wondering where her little brother was, and whether he was alright. After her encounter with Count Olaf two weeks before, she knew what the Firestarters were capable of. Thinking again of Count Olaf, she realised that her father and brother were injured badly, and her mother and sister were missing, presumably captured by the Firestarters. She had no home, and only the belongings in her small rucksack. She was in the middle of nowhere, and completely alone.

Well, alone except for Arlo. Unlucky, injured Arlo, who was now entirely dependent on a girl in distress herself.

Violet couldn't imagine that anything could get any worse.

At the same time, she knew that she had to carry on. It was up to her to bring her family back together again. She knew where Klaus had been taken. She just needed to find a way in. Maybe, with Arlo's help, everything could still turn out alright.

She returned to Arlo with their two rucksacks and their tent, to find that her friend's condition had improved. He was still unable to get to his feet, but the bleeding had stopped completely and Arlo seemed to be coping with the pain much better than he had been before.

That evening, as the sky turned to blue once again, Violet cared for Arlo, putting up their tent by herself, and making sure that both of them were well fed with food and water from Arlo's rucksack. The food did him a lot of good; he might not have been able to walk, but by that evening, Arlo had recovered some energy and had returned to his old, talkative self.

By the time that the moon rose high in the clear Hinterlands sky, the roles of the two young inventors had been reversed. Violet was sitting alone outside the tent, huddled up, her arms cradling her knees, looking up at the night sky. She was too troubled to sleep. How could she sleep with her family lost, and scattered all over the country? She didn't even know if most of them were alive or dead.

"You alright, Violet?"

It was Arlo, who crept out of the tent to see what was up with his friend.

Violet looked back at him and smiled sadly. There were tears in her eyes once more.

"I can't sleep," she said quietly.

"Too much on your mind?" Arlo asked as he sat down next to Violet, to which she nodded.

"Why has everything turned out so wrong?" she said quietly, in a voice that lacked all of her usual confidence.

Arlo had no answer to that, but tried his best to console her.

"We can make a difference, you know," he said comfortingly. "It doesn't matter what the numbers are if you have logic and reason on your side. Good tactical thinking can solve any problem."

Violet sighed.

"Maybe," she said. "But I can't think straight anymore. I've lost _everyone_, Arlo. I don't know where mother is. I don't know where Sunny is. I don't even know if they're alive. Klaus has been captured and father's badly hurt. We've got no house, no money. The only things I own are the clothes I wear and the contents of that rucksack."

"Look," Arlo said soothingly, putting an arm around Violet comfortingly as she started to cry once again. "I know what it feels like," he whispered. "There's a reason my father lives alone with me and Anna, you know. I never had a chance to save my mother. I know what the pain is like. And yes, the loss is horrible, but over time, you'll learn to accommodate the pain, and grow used to a new, different life."

Violet looked up at Arlo, and imagine a younger child, weeping for his dead mother. For once, she felt as though things could be worse. And she didn't know whether her parents were dead or not. Not yet, anyway. For Violet, at least, there was still hope.

"Do you rememeber her?" Violet asked through the tears. "Your mother?"

Arlo paused for a moment, taking his time to answer.

"Not much," he said finally. "She died when I was four, you see. She was off on some V.F.D. mission. I didn't really understand much at that age. All I knew was that she wouldn't be coming home anymore."

"How did she die?" Violet asked, but immediately regretted it when she saw the pained look on Arlo's face. "I'm sorry," she apologised.

"Don't be sorry," he said. "You didn't know. And I don't, either."

"Don't know what?"

"How she died," Arlo said quietly. "And I don't want to know, either," he said thoughtfully.

"Why not?" Violet asked.

"I've grown used to the loss," he said. "Yes, the grief is still there, but I've accepted fate and moved on. To know what happened to her would just complicate things again. I don't want to know."

"I'm sure that she died a noble death," Violet said, trying to cheer up Arlo, but he shook his head sadly.

"I don't know about that," he said. "Sometimes I wonder whether there is a noble side in this schism. Most of the fighting seems pointless."

"Well, now I have a reason to fight," Violet said confidently. "I've got a family rescue. And I hope to get us home in one piece."

Arlo laughed at that, and extended his arm around Violet so that the two sat together in a loose embrace. Violet leaned in towards Arlo, returning his embrace, laughing with him.

"We'll have to see about that, Violet," he said. "But I'm sure we can find a way. I'm sure that together, we'll manage to figure something out."

* * *

**A/N: If you liked today's chapter, please feel free to review! Any ideas, tips or constructive criticism are welcomed :)**


	11. Chapter Eleven

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to richards25, krikanalo, Don't leave me hanging and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing the last chapter! :)**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

Klaus was confused.

The last thing he remembered was falling through the sky in Jacques Snicket's broken helicopter, and now he was alone again. He was in a small room, stone-built with a bare wooden floor, not that different from the room he'd awoken in at the V.F.D. base in the Verdant Valley. However, he could tell (mostly due to the bare wooden bunk he had just slept on, the thick metal door and the small, high, barred window) that he wasn't here as a guest.

As for where _here_ was, Klaus could only guess. He assumed that this was the feared Firestarter base at the edge of the Mortmains, near to where their helicopter had undoubtedly fallen. As for his comrades Jacques and Arlo, and his sister Violet, again he could only guess. Hopefully, wherever they were, they were safe.

Klaus could see the sunlight shining in through the small window in his room, and assumed that no nights had passed since the helicopter crash. The day dragged on, and by evening, he had read through his only possession, his commonplace book, countless times. But upon inspecting his ruined coat that sat at the end of his bunk that evening as the pale blue light of the Hinterlands sunset shone into the room, he found a ballpoint pen in one of the pockets. Having nothing better to do, he decided to record his situation in the small, royal blue book.

_Date: August 17th_

_Time: Evening (there's no clock)_

_Sitrep: Everything's gone wrong, basically. I'm stuck in a small, locked room, presumably held prisoner by the Firestarters. For what purpose, I don't know. Maybe they know who I am, or more likely, who my parents are. Maybe they are after the same thing as Count Olaf; the sugar bowl, whatever that is. Or maybe Count Olaf runs this base. Maybe he's got mother and Sunny captured here? No, that sounds unlikely. Whatever the reason is behind it, I'm completely at the mercy of my captors._

_I don't know where any of my friends or family are. I've not even had a chance to contact any of my friends in the fortnight since the fire. Even that feels so long ago now. The confrontation at the petrol station, the car chase, losing mother, father and Sunny, and then that long journey through the Hinterlands with Violet._

_Mother and Sunny are missing, presumably captured by Count Olaf and his vicious associates. Father was harpooned by that horrible man who worked for Olaf. He's alive, at least, but seriously injured. He's safe in the Mortmains, but by attempting to reach him, I've put myself in more danger than before._

_As for my travelling companions, I have no idea as to their fate. For all I know, they might be dead._

Klaus stopped writing and looked up for a moment, accepting the grim reality as to his sister's situation. One by one, Klaus had lost everyone and everything in the past two weeks. With tears in his eyes, Klaus forced himself to carry on writing the entry in his commonplace book.

_I hope Violet is safe, wherever she is. Hopefully either Jacques or Arlo is with her. I can't imagine that Arlo has any business with the Firestarters, but I can imagine them putting a lot of effort into capturing Jacques Snicket. Maybe that was why they attacked us. Jacques said that he had some important files with him that he was taking to the Headquarters with him. Maybe they contained information that could change the course of the schism? Or maybe I'm just making this sound dramatic. I'm certain that the Firestarters must be after something if they went to the hassle of shooting us down. They must have recognised us. They wouldn't shoot civilian (even though really, we are civilians) aircraft._

_I hate how we've all been dragged into this schism so suddenly. Violet and I don't even fully understand the motives and ambitions of both sides. All I know is that my parents fought for the Volunteers, and we have to do everything in our power (which, I'm afraid, isn't much in my case) to get them back, There is still hope. The Firestarters may have won the battle, but they are far from winning the war._

_I just need to find a way out of here._

Klaus put down his pen and realised that almost complete darkness had fallen outside, and that he could barely see what he'd been writing. Feeling tired, he shut his commonplace book, put it back in his coat pocket along with the pen, curled himself up on the cold, hard bunk, and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

Klaus slept fitfully that night, and finally felt ready to rise from his bunk at (what he thought was) mid-day.

He had little to do in his small room, but he quickly realised how hungry he felt. He hadn't eaten since the previous morning, and among other things, he was starting to get a headache from dehydration. Finally, at what Klaus thought was the middle of the afternoon, he heard someone fumbling at the lock to his room. The swung open quickly, blinding Klaus with the bright sunlight. Two scruffy-looking but sinister men came quickly into the room, and Klaus could see tattoos of the V.F.D. eye on their bare left ankles. Both men had harpoon guns, and they made Klaus feel insecure.

"You will come with us," one of the men barked, and Klaus had no choice but to obey. He followed the first man out of the room, and the second man followed Klaus, offering the middle Baudelaire no chance of escape.

Leaving his room behind, Klaus found that he was in the Firestarter base that had shot down Jacques Snicket's helicopter. His room had been inside one of the two turrets on the twenty-foot-high stone wall that protected the base. He walked out onto a walkway by the top of the wall, and he could look down onto the base and see a handful of small buildings between himself and the sheer sides of the mountains a few hundred yards north of him. Looking out over the Hinterlands on his right, he could see the charred mass that had once been Jacques helicopter roughly a mile away. However, there was no sign of life near it. Hoping Violet was safe, Klaus turned his attention to possible escape routes, and was quickly stuck for options.

However, as he was paraded along the top of the wall by the two men, he spotted a weakness. At the ends of the wall, where the wall met the side of the mountains, it was possible to hurdle the wall and land on the side of the mountain. At one end of the wall, the mountain side was almost vertical, but at the other, although it was still steep, a downward climb would be manageable. However, Klaus could see no way of getting there. Maybe with a distraction, he might have been able to get onto the mountainside, but the climb down would be so slow that the Firestarter men would be able to harpoon him easily.

And he _definitely_ didn't want to end up like his father.

Soon the two men led Klaus down from the wall and into a large open space between the main buildings - some sort of courtyard - where ten or fifteen men (who all looked similar to the two who had came for him) waited. He found himself being taken to the centre of a circle of men, all of whom had harpoon guns except one; a middle-aged man, who was bald yet had a thick beard. As soon as a terrified Klaus reached the centre of the group, this man adressed him in a high, scratchy voice.

"Klaus Baudelaire," the man said matter-of-factly, and Klaus had no idea how to answer to that.

"Who are you?" he asked quietly.

"My name, and who I am is not important," the man said with a voice of authority. "Now when you are in no position to ask questions," he said, gesturing to the men with harpoon guns all around the middle Baudelaire. "What is important is your knowledge."

"My knowledge?" Klaus said, bewildered. If this man wanted to know all the King and Queens of England or which planet is furthest from the sun, then the man didn't need Klaus. He just needed an encyclopedia.

It turned out that Klaus had merely misunderstood the man, who quickly continued speaking.

"Yes," the man confirmed. "So, tell me, Klaus, where is the Snicket file?"

"The Snicket file?" Klaus asked, even more perplexed. "I have no idea. I've never even heard of it," he said truthfully.

"Don't play dumb with me, Baudelaire," the man said forcefully. "I know fully well that we shot down Jacques Snicket's helicopter. You may have been the only person we found, but we know that Jacques Snicket was flying to the Mortmains to deliver the Snicket File to your headquarters, after being given it by Daniel Thursday in the Verdant Valley."

Klaus remembered Jacques carrying some important files, but he was never told what they were. Evidently they really did mean a lot, if this man (who Klaus found very intimidating) was after them.

"I don't know what happened to Jacques Snicket," he said, remaining honest but deflecting the answer. "I passed out on the way down. The next thing I knew I was here."

The bearded man frowned angrily, but one of his men called out.

"He's telling the truth, boss," the man said. "When we found him he was unconscious."

"Very well," the bearded man conceded. "What can you tell me about the Snicket File?"

"Nothing," Klaus replied. "I hadn't heard of it until two minutes ago. Does it have anything to do with the sugar bowl?"

At this the bearded man's eyes lit up, apparently forgetting that Klaus wasn't meant to ask questions.

"How do you know of the sugar bowl?"

"My mother spoke of it when Olaf found us," Klaus said honestly. "Olaf thought that we had it, but I've never seen it, and my mother denied having it."

"Interesting," the man muttered, then turned to face a man who stood behind him, his second in command. "Send word south to Bladeridge Castle. Tell Olaf to keep Mrs Baudelaire and her child there until we get more information."

"You know where my mother is?" Klaus asked loudly, having overheard the bearded man. The bearded man, however, did not answer Klaus' question, but instead advanced upon him menacingly, as though he meant to strike Klaus for the cheek of listening in to the man's private conversation. But Klaus already knew what he needed. _Bladeridge Castle. _He knew where his mother and younger sister were. He knew that they were still alive. There was hope for them yet.

The bearded man lunged towards Klaus, but stopped halfway as cries sprang up around the base, and everything descended into pandemonium.

* * *

**A/N: Please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)**


	12. Chapter Twelve

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to richards25, krikanalo and Theonewhoweaveswords for reviewing the last chapter!**

**In response to Theonewhoweaveswords' review, there will be some chapters based on Sunny, just not yet. She'll have her time later in the story.**

**I should also mention that the bearded man was the Man With a Beard But No Hair. I just couldn't use his 'proper' name without having introduced his partner in crime, the Woman With Hair But No Beard.**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

Violet was concentrating.

She had risen early before dawn, when the night was still black. Leaving a note for Arlo at their tent, she had left the debris site behind, heading for the Firestarter base at the edge of the mountains.

She only had to walk a mile, so it took her very little time to get close, but then approached much more cautiously so as to not get caught. It was still dark, so there was no danger of her being spotted, but she didn't want to be heard by anyone who might happen to be on guard.

As the sun rose over the Hinterlands from the east, Violet was out of sight of the base, hidden by the curved walls of the mountains. Slowly creeping round the steep sides of the mountain so that she was just able to see the base, Violet took care to make sure that she was hidden from sight by some loose boulders that had fallen from the mountains and lay and the foot of the hills.

There, by the light of the new dawn, Violet took her ribbon from her pocket, tied up her long hair, and started to think.

_How can we get in there and find Klaus?_

There was no obvious way in. One heavily fortified gatehouse looked to be the only way in and out of the base. The only other way in would be over the walls. It seemed as though that would be impossible, though, as one mountain was far too steep to climb, and the other was too open, and she was sure that both Arlo and herself would be spotted if they attempted to climb into the base from that side.

And then Violet suddenly had an idea.

* * *

It was late morning by the time that Arlo woke to find Violet's note outside the tent.

"Violet?" he called, not expecting an answer, but he heard her call out almost immediately.

"I'm over here," he heard her call out from the wrecked helicopter. "What is it?"

"What're you doing?" Arlo asked, walking towards her, but as soon as he saw her, he knew that she was inventing.

"What're you trying to build?" he asked, walking up to where Violet was searching, looking for compatible pieces of bend metal.

"Something that'll get us into that base," she said, smiling.

"You really think we'll be able to?" Arlo asked, to which his friend nodded.

"We should be able to," she replied. "It seems as though, due to its remote location, the base is poorly guarded. Twenty men at most."

"_Twenty men?_" Arlo exclaimed. "How're we going to get past all of them?"

"Quite easily," was Violet's reply. "The base is so large that whole sections are completely undefended at times. Earlier, I noticed a ten-minute period where nobody was on the front wall."

"Really?" Arlo said, raising an eyebrow. Maybe the base would be easier to infiltrate - where "infiltrate" here means "find a way in, find Klaus, and get out without being spotted" - than he had first thought.

"Yes," Violet replied. "I should be able to make something that'll get us over the wall easily."

"So why do you need all this metal?" Arlo asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Violet said, with the same foolish, cocky grin that Arlo had often worn himself. "I'm going to make a grappling hook."

_Now, why didn't I think of that before, _Arlo thought, figuratively kicking himself for his stupidity.

"The only problem is that I'm going to need the guy ropes from the tent to tie these pieces of metal together to make the hook, and use the rest of the guy ropes to make the rope."

"Do you think there'll be enough rope there?" Arlo asked, unsure of whether the idea was going to work or not.

"It should do," Violet said confidently. "Now, go and fetch me that rope. I've got work to do."

* * *

It was the middle of the afternoon by the time that Violet and Arlo lay hidden at the foot of the base's walls, their makeshift grappling hook. In this context, the word "makeshift" here means "made from scrap metal and guy ropes, so the grappling hook might be a complete disaster," so Violet was understandably anxious as she finally saw that the coast was clear, and threw the hook up at the wall, hoping for it to reach over the wall, and get a purchase on anything at the top. Unfortunately for Violet, the hook didn't even reach the the top of the wall, but instead it crashed into it with a metallic _clang! _and then landed back at her feet again.

"Let me have a go," Arlo said quietly but impatiently, but Violet shook her head and threw again. This time, the hook didn't even touch the wall but went straight up in the air, only to land again at Violet's feet. A third attempt was just as unsuccessful at the first two, so when the hook landed on the ground by their feet again, Arlo picked it up before Violet did, and threw it with all his might. The grappling hook soared over the top of the wall, and Arlo pulled on the rope a couple of times. Nothing gave, so he was convinced that the hook was secure. Looking at Violet with a look that seemed to say "_I told you so,_" Arlo put both his hands on the rope and started climbing.

It wasn't an easy climb considering that he only had one good leg (he was able to walk now, but climbing was still a lot of effort), and Arlo had to use his arms almost exclusively to pull himself onto the top of the wall. With Arlo up and signalling down that the coast was clear, Violet began to start the climb. Although she was much more scared than Arlo had been, she managed to calm herself by making sure to only look at the rope she was holding, and the climb seemed to pass quickly. Soon Violet and Arlo were alone on top of the high stone wall, trying to regain their breath. Arlo put down his rucksack (they had agreed to bring everything with them, aside from their tent, which they had packed up and left hidden in the wreckage of Jacques Snicket's helicopter) and pulled out a water bottle, drinking from it desperately.

Violet, who knew that they had little time on the wall before they would be spotted, scanned the base for any signs of her little brother, when her eyes settled on a group of armed men surrounding a boy and another, older man. Was this Klaus? She couldn't tell from her distance. But she had a hunch, and that was better than nothing.

Of course, having a hunch can be a very dangerous thing indeed, especially when it turns out that your hunch was wrong. For instance, I once had a hunch that a cave I was going to explore would be full of vicious bats, and entered the cave fully equipped to fend off the aforementioned bats. However, my hunch was incorrect, and instead I walked into a cave to find a hibernating bear. Of course, I was not prepared for this, and my expedition had a very different outcome to the one I was hoping for.

But on this day at the Firestarter base, Violet Baudelaire's hunch turned out to be useful, as it gave her an incentive to venture further into the base, which was almost deserted due to the congregation in the square at the centre of the base. It was easy for Violet and Arlo to slip through between buildings and down back passages through the base without getting caught, even at walking pace.

_Whatever's going on today, it must be important, _Violet thought as she crept through the base, with Arlo keeping an eye out behind her.

As Violet and Arlo drew closer to the centre of the base, they began to hear angry voices echo out towards them. There was definitely a couple of men who were getting very animated and vocal about something, although Violet couldn't hear clearly enough to work out what was being said. Then she heard another, quiet, terriefied voice, and she knew that her hunch had been right all along. She wasn't even sure if that was a good thing or not, but at least she now knew where Klaus was.

"It's Klaus," she whispered to Arlo as they crept along another back passage, pausing for a moment as a guard passed by twenty yards ahead of them, unsuspecting. Arlo merely nodded as a way of reply, and the two tried to pick up their pace slightly as Violet became more eager to see her younger brother again.

The pair of them stumbled across the main square by accident.

Violet, who was leading, turned a corner in an alley, expecting another back passage, but walked straight out into the square.

There were at least fifteen or twenty men in the centre of the square, all of them wielding harpoon guns, and surrounding two figures. Violet didn't recognise one of them , who was a bald, bearded man, but she definitely recognised the person he was talking to in his high, scratchy voice. In the centre of the circle stood a terrified Klaus, who had little he could do but whatever was asked of him. At least, at that moment, there had been no violence.

Violet struggled not to let out a startled gasp as she quickly moved back into the shadows, scared of drawing attention to herself. However, Arlo, who hadn't seen what was round the corner, continued walking forward, collided with Violet and both of them collapsed to the floor in an ungainly heap, falling forward into the square as they landed.

"Bloody hell," Arlo swore as he landed heavily on his injured leg, but Violet wasn't the only person to hear him. As he struggled to pull himself to his feet, he looked up straight into the eyes of one of the guards.

For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other emotionlessly, then the guard's eyes narrowed a she realised who they were, and he called out quickly and loudly.

"Intruders!" he yelled. "Intruders at the square!"

Violet and Arlo only had a split second to get to their feet before all hell broke loose.

And then they ran.

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: Please review! I appreciate any (and all) support! :)**


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo, richards25, Theonewhoweaveswords and mangesboy01 for reviewing!**

**I should mention that this will be the final chapter of this story (to fit in with the original series' thirteen chapters per book), although the conclusion drawn here will be far from complete.**

**It may be the end of one chapter of the Baudelaire children's lives, but there will be several more. I'm planning for this to be a long series, with ideas for a quartet at the very least.**

**And so I give you the conclusion to my first ASoUE fanfic, the Sinister Schism.**

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

Klaus was pleased.

He didn't know what had caused it or why, but someone somewhere had provided his captors with a distraction. All the faces around the square were looking around anxiously as panicked cries went up across the base. Even the bald, bearded man who had been interrogating Klaus moments before seemed unhinged, barking orders nervously to anyone - and, at that moment, it was _no-one_ - who would listen to him. With all eyes looking elsewhere and none at him, Klaus Baudelaire saw his moment to escape. Before anyone could stop him, he had darted between two guards and slipped into a gap between two buildings, obscuring him from sight.

Despite his stroke of luck - a phrase here used to describe his fortunate dash for freedom - Klaus was scared as he darted through the narrow passageways of the base. He knew that someone must be after him, and he was fearful of the men's harpoon guns. Hoping to avoid ending up within range of one of their deadly harpoons, Klaus was careful to keep darting down two passageways so that he was never within range, and also to confuse and hopefully lose his pursuers. He knew where he needed to be running towards, the weak link of the wall; the point where it would be possible to hurdle the defences and possible to clamber down the mountainside and away into the Hinterlands.

He was out of breath by the time he sprinted up the steep stone steps onto the top of the wall, and was relieved to see that he met no resistance there. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked back into the base. Pandemonium had erupted below him, and he could see that whatever the distraction had been had taken away most of the attention from him towards the other end of the base, where he saw two figures running through the buildings as he had done. Was it Violet and Arlo? Had they been captured too? Or were they trying to rescue him? Klaus didn't even know if it was his sister and her friend, and his pause for breath had given his pursuers a chance to catch up.

Shocked back into action by a harpoon that flew past him harmlessly, Klaus only had a few yards to go before hurdling the wall, landing safely on the steep mountainside a metre below.

* * *

Violet was terrified.

Pulling Arlo to his feet quickly, the two had fled back through the Firestarter base as fast as they could, which sadly wasn't very quick due to Arlo's injured leg.

"Run on ahead!" Arlo said desperately as his leg gave way once again, struggling to keep up with Violet. They had a few seconds over their pursuers due to a couple of clever turns through the passageways, but he knew that their lead wouldn't last long if they kept going like they had been. "Save yourself! It's you that they are after, not me!"

Violet knew that Arlo was talking sense, but at the same time she knew better than to abandon her friend in such a hostile - a word which here means "full of angry Firestarter men" - environment. She was already thinking ahead as to escape routes as they hurriedly made their way back towards the stone wall that they had scaled to infiltrate the base.

And suddenly she knew how she could get both of them to escape.

Violet ran back to help Arlo to continue, putting an arm around him, trying to help carry him along. Eventually Violet and Arlo found their way to a stairway that led to the top of the wall, and she half-carried, half-dragged Arlo up it, putting him down at the top. Looking down the hill she could see the men congregating below her, ready to strike. She had half a minute, at most.

"Arlo, give me your rucksack," she said, but had taken it before he could even give any form of reply. As she opened it up, she was aware that a few strands of her hair were beginning to fall over her face (she hadn't re-tied it since making the grappling hook that morning in the wreckage of Jacques' helicopter), but she knew that she didn't have time to re-tie her hair now. It was a distraction that she would have to live with.

Arlo only realised what Violet was trying to do when his glider was half-complete on the floor at his feet.

"No!" he said desperately. "We can't use that!"

"Why not?" Violet asked, not looking up from her work. In her week at the Verdant Valley, she'd learnt to construct Arlo's gliders as quickly as Arlo himself. It only took her fifteen seconds to get the completed structure, and she was quickly trying to attach the contraption to her friend.

"We've never tested the glider with two people!" Arlo said. He was unsure about the idea, but was putting up minimal resistance as Violet strapped him into his invention. Below him, he could see the first Firestarters begin the ascent onto the wall near to them, but he continued to complain about Violet's desperate idea. "We've no idea whether the glider can hold both of us!"

"You're not _scared_, are you, Arlo?"

"No, but-"

"Well then, what's life without a little risk?" Violet said, wearing the same foolish grin that Arlo had on countless occasions before. Then she kissed him quickly, put both her arms around him and threw both of them over the edge.

* * *

Klaus was relieved as to how easy his escape had been. From thinking that any escape would've been impossible an hour before to running away alone across the Hinterlands, he hadn't suffered any real hardships. Yes, he was tired, but wasn't hurt. Nobody had attempted to follow him down the mountainside - the fall was only about twenty feet, but nobody else was prepared to take the risk. Add that to the fact that Klaus was light, nimble and able to descend the mountainside safely, and his escape had been quick.

Now he was away, he didn't really know where to go. He decided that his first destination should be the wreck of Jacques' helicopter, to see who or what had survived the fall. After that, he had two places in mind. the V.F.D. Headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains, to finish the journey he'd started a few days before, to see his injured father and feel safe and secure again, rather than facing the dangers of the world alone.

Past then, he knew that he would have to find a way to Bladeridge Castle, wherever that was. He'd have to find out, and then travel there to rescue his mother and baby sister. Hopefully he'd get help in the Mortmains, so he wouldn't have to face that journey alone.

Suddenly his attention returned to the two figures that had given him the distraction he had needed to escape. For the first time he looked back at the base, and from half a mile away he could see a figure floating in the sky near the base, travelling towards him. He didn't even need to see the people clearly before he knew it was good news. As the object came closer, he saw that it was Violet and Arlo, soaring through the late afternoon sky with Arlo's glider. He heard them laughing as they swooped down low over his head, flying on for a moment before wheeling round and landing a few yards from him.

For the first time in a while, Klaus found himself smiling.

Despite the unfortunate events that had led to him being in such a desperate position, he was glad to have some good fortune once in a while. While he knew, just as I do, that his troubles would be far from over, but he could enjoy this stroke of good luck while it lasted, despite all the unfortunate events that loomed just round the corner.

For once, Klaus Baudelaire was happy.

* * *

_(Fictional) Author's note:_

_Dear Gamemaker97,_

_I am writing to you from the keep of Bladeridge Castle, where I have learnt of the treacherous plans and daring rescue attempts concocted within these very walls by members of both sides of the Schism. It will not be a very pleasant tale, but an important one nonetheless in the lives of the three Baudelaire children._

_Should you arrive at platform seventeen of Birmingham New Street station next Saturday at nine in the evening, you will find a man wearing a red leather jacket (quite untasteful, admittedly, but recognisable) attempt to give you a package. Take it from him. Inside, you will find my description of the next miserable tale in the lives of the Baudelaire children, entitled THE FRIGHTENING FORTRESS. Along with it there will be several items, including a letter from Count Olaf to the V.F.D. volunteers, a fragment of fabric from the hang-glider used by Violet Baudelaire, and a copy of the music played by Simon Webber. I have also included the trilby hat worn by Mr. Lemony Snicket during his time at Bladeridge Castle, in the hope that my illustrator, Mr. Harper, would find it useful if this tragic story ever finds its way from the internet and into bookstores._

_Remember, I am relying on you to make sure that the desperate plight of the Baudelaires is finally known to the general public._

_With all due respect, _

_A.T._

* * *

**(Serious) Author's Note: And so concludes my first ASoUE fanfic! I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed this first chapter in what I hope will become a long series.**

**As the letter above may suggest, the sequel to this story, 'The Frightening Fortress', continues the narrative where this short novel leaves it, and I should begin to upload it within the next week.**

**Again thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed or favourited this story.**

**GM97 :)**

**P.S. No, I do not live in Birmingham.**


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